Coming to Terms
by L. Greene
Summary: Sollux Captor is perfectly happy with his small group of friends until one night, when his friend Karkat demands a computer repair. There, he meets Eridan Ampora, and suddenly, Sollux is seeing him everywhere. Humanstuck, M for future chapters. Erisol and others.
1. Act 1

**Alright, then. Another Homestuck fic for you. This is going to be multiple chapters (how many, I don't know, and I'm also not really sure how the plot is going to progress, so this should be a fun adventure for all of us). Primarily Erisol with eight other flushed pairings (both requited and unrequited).**

**Thanks to the lovely Soso for beta-reading most of this for me.**

* * *

Sollux frowned at his bathroom mirror and took off his glasses, setting them next to the sink. He rubbed his eyes before holding open his left one and plucking out the brown-tinted contact lens and placing it in the plastic case on the other side of the sink. His frown deepened as he put his glasses back on and opened up the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. He reached for a short, squat bottle and poured two of the little blue pills into his hand before putting the bottle back and taking the glass sitting next to the sink. He turned on the tap, put the glass under the stream, and filled it halfway. He popped the two pills into his mouth, downed the water in three long swallows, and replaced the glass on the counter. He slowly blinked at his reflection, his eyes now mismatched—one brown and one traitorously blue—and made a soft "hmm" of acceptance as he felt the pills already kicking in. His thoughts were slowing down and his eyelids grew heavy, and with a grim sort of nod, he stepped away from the mirror and out of the bathroom, flicking off the lights as he went.

He turned right and turned on his bedroom light. He went to his closet and pulled his plain blue shirt over his head, dropping it into the basket on the floor before toeing out of his shoes and socks, and starting on his black jeans. He closed his closet door, stripped down to one of his many sets of bee-print boxers, and flipped off his bedroom light. He went to his nightstand and fumbled for the charging cord for his cell phone, plugged it in, and quadruple-checked that he had no new text messages, missed calls, or emails. He pulled the blue-and-red-striped covers back from his bed, climbed in, took off his glasses, and snapped off the bedside lamp.

He was mercifully asleep in a matter of minutes, his dreams medicated and dark.

* * *

_Bzzt-bzzt-bzzt._

Something was intruding into his unconsciousness. He didn't know what that aggravating sound was but he was vaguely aware that it shouldn't have woken him up. His eyes blinked open and he smacked at the source of the buzzing, his hand colliding with the slick plastic of his phone. He grimaced and went to hit the "ignore" button, but somehow his finger dragged against "answer" instead, and all of a sudden, his phone was on speaker and an obnoxious voice was yelling, "SOLLUX, I NEED YOU TO GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW OR SO HELP ME GOD I WILL BOUNCE OVER THERE ON A BUBBLE MADE OF MY OWN FUCKING FURY AND DRAG YOU OVER HERE BY YOUR FUCKING HAIR!"

For a second, Sollux was speechless. He'd been on the receiving end of several of Karkat's rants and knew that he wasn't at full rage yet—in fact, he mostly just seemed irritated—but he had been blindsided by the barrage of cursing. "Okay, KK," he said finally. "What the fuck is wrong now?" His lisp was even more pronounced now when he was groggy, but it was one of the few things about himself that he'd made peace with.

"MY FUCKING COMPUTER CRASHED FOR THE FOURTH TIME TONIGHT AND YOU'RE THE ONLY FUCKING PERSON I KNOW WHO HAS THE MENTAL CAPACITY IN THEIR FUCKING THINK PAN TO FIX THIS SHIT!"

Sollux closed his eyes and tried not to groan. Of _course_ Karkat was having computer issues right now. He squinted at the time on his phone and rolled his eyes. Twelve-thirty. This was ridiculous. He needed to start turning off his phone before he went to bed. Karkat was lucky he didn't have class the next morning. "Alright, fine," he grumbled. "Just give me about twenty minutes. I was asleep," he added pointedly, but the line just went dead as Karkat hung up. Of course the little bastard would have no sympathy for him.

He finally let out a frustrated groan and turned on the lamp. After he put his glasses back on, he rolled out of bed and hunted for a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He didn't bother with socks; he just shoved his feet into a pair of shoes and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he unplugged his phone. Fortunately, Karkat's apartment was close enough for him to ride his bicycle. The sleeping pills hadn't quite worn off yet and he didn't trust himself behind the wheel of a car. At least the night air would be bracing, and if he needed to, he could always pop another pill or two.

As an afterthought, he grabbed a hoodie out of his closet and tugged it over his head, knocking his glasses askew. He pocketed his phone and grabbed his apartment keys off of his dresser, forgoing the contact lens that hid his heterochromia. Karkat and Gamzee, Karkat's roommate, both knew about his eyes and it was late and he genuinely did not give a single fuck. His priorities lay with fixing Karkat's computer and going back to sleep as soon as humanly possible.

He was right about the cold air waking him up. By the time he hopped off his bike after the two-mile ride, he was wide awake and irritated about it. He was _definitely_ going to have to take another pill to get back to sleep or risk his insomnia robbing him of some much-needed REM. He locked up his bike on the rack outside of the door to the apartment building and buzzed Karkat's apartment.

"THAT YOU, MOTHERFUCKER?" Karkat practically screamed at him through the speaker. Sollux had no idea how his neighbors put up with his near-constant shouting. He tipped his head back and growled in frustration before hitting the intercom button. "Yes, numb-nuts, it's me."

The door buzzed open, and Sollux let himself inside and went to the elevator. He hit the button for the fourth floor and allowed himself to slump against the wall as the doors slid shut. He was mentally exhausted but physically alert. It was a strange feeling, one that had his eyes drifting shut so that he could almost sleep but then the elevator bumped to a stop and the doors opened and he lazily pushed himself off the wall and went into the hallway of the fourth floor.

He knocked on the door of apartment 413 and rubbed at his eyes and the bridge of his nose until Karkat answered. The shorter teen looked up at him with a relieved sort of glare and stepped back to allow Sollux entrance. "About fucking time," Karkat said, his voice thankfully not raised.

Sollux finally stepped inside and allowed himself only a half of a second to register that Gamzee was still wide awake playing some video game on their Xbox with another kid about their age he half-recognized. His mind began to whirl, scanning for a name to put to the face—and certainly that septum piercing was distinctive, he should remember that—before finally the name _Tavros_ floated to the surface. They'd met once or twice, probably at school, although Sollux didn't share a single class with Gamzee. This kid, Tavros, he definitely didn't know about Sollux's eye thing (God, he hated it, it made him so self-conscious), and for a second, he began to panic until he remembered that it was dark and Tavros was across the room and there was no way he could see Sollux's eyes, even if he'd acknowledged his presence, and that wasn't happening because he was so absorbed in the game with Gamzee. _Okay, not a threat_, he told himself.

Sollux only knew Gamz because he was Karkat's roommate and pretty much his best friend, a title that used to belong to Sollux but they'd drifted apart a bit after high school and now… Well, they were still friends, or else Sollux wouldn't have dragged his ass over here at half past midnight, but the days of gaming together at the same physical location and ordering shitty pizza at ten-thirty in the evening and comparing notes on their (nonexistent) love lives were over.

No, now Karkat was spending his days with Gamzee and apparently this kid Tavros and Sollux had been re-designated as Computer Technician in Karkat's mental cast list and while he didn't mind—he had other friends, after all; Aradia and he had always been close, and they were almost as tight as he and Karkat had been—it was still a bit strange to recall that they had once spent every waking moment together.

"What seems to be the problem?" Sollux asked when Karkat gestured toward the computer, the command _Get on this shit_ unspoken but definitely implied. Karkat was very lucky Sollux didn't care about being bossed around like this.

"I downloaded this file and I tried to run it and then it just crashed. I booted it up a few more times and tried to run it again and it just kept crashing my computer."

Sollux plucked off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Jesus fuck, KK. I told you like a hundred times not to download porn onto your laptop. If you _need_ to beat off—"

"It's not fucking _porn_, four-eyes. It's for a project that's due on Monday and I got my lab buddy here to work on this so I kind of fucking need to get this shit _done_."

Sollux raised an eyebrow. Tavros was his lab partner? He seemed to be more than comfortable with letting Karkat do all the work himself, but he never expected that Karkat would just roll with it. It was an interesting development, but he decided not to comment on it.

He had Karkat log onto the computer and then he executed an obligatory system restart. Having the laptop fail a few times had surely not been good for it. After Karkat logged back in, Sollux gave him a pointed look. "Out," he said. "I can't have you hovering over my goddamn shoulder, okay? I'll call you if I need you."

Karkat shot him a glare and crossed his arms over his chest, but he left the bedroom anyway. Sollux didn't know how or why he'd gotten so obedient lately, but it was a nice change of pace. Or it would have been, if it hadn't been so freaky. He didn't quite know what to make of it, but it wasn't important right now. Right now, he had to get Karkat's laptop running again.

He installed a free antivirus program on the computer and ran a check. He rolled his eyes at the results—the file Karkat had downloaded wasn't infected with anything, but it _was_ corrupted. Fortunately, he knew how to fix it, and when he finally double-clicked on the icon and pulled the file up, he waited for a solid two minutes before determining that, yes, the corrupted file had been the problem.

Ten minutes of work. Easy day.

He pushed back from the desk and put his glasses back on. He cracked his neck and went into the living room to fetch Karkat. "Hey, KK, it's—" He froze.

There was Karkat in a beat-up armchair and there was Gamzee on the sofa, still playing _Little Big Planet_ with Tavros next to him, but on the other side of the couch, watching the screen with a bored expression, was another guy Sollux hadn't seen before. Panic rose in his chest along with something else he couldn't name but _fuck_, that guy with the dark, wavy hair and the thick glasses that he probably didn't even need but wore to be ironic and the sour look had come from nowhere and now he'd turned his head to look at him, too and _oh, my God_ he had a penetrating stare and _what if he can see my eyes, fuck, leaving without putting in that contact was so fucking stupid_ and—

"It's fixed?" Karkat asked hopefully, snapping Sollux's focus back to the rest of his surroundings.

"Um, yeah," he said, carefully not saying "yes" to avoid the lisp thing. He didn't even know why it suddenly bothered him, but this other guy here, out of _nowhere_, was throwing him off. Even when he wasn't looking in the guy's direction, he was acutely aware of him. The fight or flight reaction in his body was screaming for the _flight_ option, so he swallowed and said, "C'mere, KK," and backed into the bedroom, away from Suave Hair and his Gaze of Dissection.

"What's up?" Karkat asked, following him. He went right to the laptop to look it over and frowned at the new software running in the background. "The fuck is this?"

"Free anti-virus program," Sollux explained patiently. "You didn't have a virus, but you don't have protection on your computer and you _need_ something, so I got you this. I trust these guys and since it's free, it's no big deal. Right?" he added pointedly. Without waiting for a response, he went on, "But the file you downloaded was corrupted. I fixed it and it's fine now."

Karkat _hmm_ed in acknowledgement.

"Um, KK, who's that guy out there?"

"You mean fuckin' Hipster Dude?"

"Yes."

"That's my lab buddy. Eridan Ampora. Forgot to mention that—he was in the bathroom when you got here."

"Oh." In the background of his internal processor, he wondered what the Hell Tavros was doing there if he wasn't Karkat's lab partner, but most of his computing power was focused on _fuck fuck fuck fuck why the fuck—?_

"Pretty lucky for me, actually. Guy's a fuckin' biology nerd. It's only gonna help my grade." He looked up at Sollux and, with an ease born of years of shared experiences, said, "Get the fuck out."

Sollux snorted with laughter and headed for the door, through the living room, and out of the apartment. And if he looked back at Eridan, sneaking a glance on the way out, it was only to verify that, yes, Eridan's eyes were still on him.

As soon as the front door closed behind him, he shook his head. "I really need to get back to sleep," he mumbled to himself.

* * *

**So. Opinions?**


	2. Act 2

**Um, alright guys. Sorry this took so long to update. I hit a bit of writer's block (since overcome!) with "Finishing Touches" and while I got "Blue Archangel" cranked out pretty easily, I've had to pack up. None of my stories will be updated until at least February 6, so batten down your hatches.**

**I got a few people asking me if I have a Tumblr and the short answer is, yes, I do. Go to my main FF. net page - the link is there. Clickable and everything.**

**Just a heads-up for this chapter and the rest, Erisol is not the only ship sailing here; it's just the primary one. Other ships will be focused on in various chapters but this is primarily an Erisol fic. So there's that.**

**Thanks to otakudrawsalot ft. KanaNoHana, Zekkie, Azoroua, Wub A Dub Dub, sophisticateharlot, RemiVantalaimon, XxxLeslieXxx, one guest, and one anonymous for your reviews to chapter one!**

* * *

Sollux's blissful nothing of a dream was cut into by the synthesized sound of "Tear You Apart" by She Wants Revenge. For three groggy seconds, he wondered why, in the name of all that was holy, he'd set that alarm on a Sunday anyway, but it came back to him as soon as he tumbled out of bed and wound up staring at his collection of Xbox and PS3 games.

Terezi was coming over. They were going to have a twelve-hour gaming marathon.

Sollux fumbled for his glasses and tugged on a pair of sweatpants. As soon as he'd made up his bed, he pulled a clean T-shirt out of his dresser and headed for the kitchen for a bit of breakfast.

He was halfway through his two pieces of toast and two scrambled eggs when he heard a rapidfire knock on the door to his apartment. It was Terezi—it could only be her—but she was early. It was only eight. He crammed the rest of his toast into his mouth and went to answer the door.

"Hey, Sol!" she said brightly, jumping up and flinging her arms around his neck the moment the door was open. Her bright red hair practically smacked him in the face.

He cautiously returned her hug, aware that her feet were dangling about six inches off the ground. She wasn't exactly short, but he was six-foot-two and that was enough to dwarf pretty much anyone. "Hey, TZ. You're early."

She let go of him and dropped to the floor. "Yeah, I know. I was bored. I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" she added mischievously, poking her head around the corner.

"Just breakfast. Hungry?"

"Nah, I already ate." She followed him back into the kitchen anyway and sat down, taking her red-tinted glasses off and rubbing her eyes. Sollux had always thought her eyes were weird, but in a good way. They were a strange shade of green, halfway between green and blue, and incredibly pale. What most people missed through the glasses, though, was that she was legally blind.

He'd asked once, a long time ago, what exactly that meant in her case. "I can still see a little bit," she'd said. "When my glasses are off, colors are all swirled together and I can sort of focus on whatever's right in front of me." With her glasses, her vision was slightly improved, but she definitely would never be able to drive a car.

Still, she could see well enough to trounce him at _HALO_ for seven or eight hours.

Around noon, there was another sharp rapping at the door, and Sollux nearly leaped off the sofa, hitting pause as he did so. His mood had been brightened by seeing Terezi and she'd been keeping up a pleasant torrent of wisecracking and trash-talking, so when he skidded to the door in his socks and nearly plowed into the wall, he was laughing the whole time. Readjusting his glasses, he pulled open the door.

"Hey, Sollux," Aradia said warmly, and Sollux felt his grin widen.

"AA! What are you doing here?"

"I heard there was a party." She peeked into the apartment around him. "Hey, Terezi!"

Terezi waved absently, looking up for only a moment from her phone.

"Kind of. We were playing _HALO_, but—"

"I was getting bored of kicking his ass nonstop," Terezi called over. "I'm ready to bust out the _Rock Band II _if you are."

Sollux turned back to Aradia. "Wanna play _Rock Band_?"

Terezi didn't feel like going back to her apartment and getting her drum controller (which was the only actual instrument she would play on _Rock Band_), so Sollux handed her the microphone. He picked up one of the guitars and Aradia grabbed the other, and the two of them switched off between bass and regular guitar, although Aradia tended to favor the bass. After a few more hours of gaming, Sollux finally dropped back onto the sofa and slid the strap of the guitar controller over his head. His fingers ached and he cracked his knuckles while Terezi perched on the coffee table and Aradia sank into an armchair.

"So how's your weekend been, Sol?" Terezi asked, turning off the microphone.

He yawned. "Hasn't been so bad." He resisted the urge to wince slightly. His lisp got worse when he was tired and he remembered, hours too late, that his eyes were visibly mismatched, but Aradia was his best friend now that Karkat had latched himself to Gamzee and Terezi couldn't see his eyes anyway. Even if she could, though, he felt like he wouldn't mind it. After all, she had her own freaky eye thing going on. "KK called me over to his apartment last night to fix his laptop. He was working on this project," he added, knowing full well neither of the girls probably cared all that much.

"Who's KK again?" Terezi asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Karkat Vantas. We've been friends since middle school or something, but…" He shrugged. "We're not as close anymore. But he still calls me at shitty hours to fix his computer." Gamzee Makara had been there, and Tavros Nitram.

His stomach jolted. That Eridan guy had been there, too. Eridan Ampora. He briefly contemplated mentioning him but decided against it at the last minute. He would talk to Aradia about him later—maybe. Not that he had any reason to do so or anything. He'd just seen the guy for about ten seconds before he practically ran out the door. It wasn't like they'd had a moment.

But it was the first time he'd thought about him since the night before and now that he was, he couldn't stop. They hadn't exchanged words, they'd barely looked at each other, but Eridan had his heart racing a mile a minute with just a glance. It wasn't something he'd feel comfortable discussing with Terezi, even though they were good friends. Aradia on the other hand…

But that was neither here nor there because _there was nothing to talk about_. Eridan was just some guy Karkat was working with. The odds of them seeing each other again, even at school, were incredibly low. Sollux took mostly technical classes and everything about Eridan screamed art major. Their classes weren't even on the same side of campus.

"But?" Terezi prompted, taking her glasses off again to narrow her eyes at him. She only did it for dramatic effect; she hadn't been born nearly blind and knew how striking her eyes looked.

Aradia snorted and began pulling her dark, curly hair back into a ponytail. "He and Karkat aren't as close anymore."

"Nah. After high school, we took maybe one class in common, got different friends." He shrugged again. "But we still see each other." He fidgeted slightly, anxious to get off this topic before it careened into something dangerous. Not that anything they'd talk about would be dangerous because, as far as he knew, neither Terezi nor Aradia knew Eridan, and even if they did, there was nothing important about him. But he still felt like ditching the subject as soon as possible. "Anyone hungry? I can order some pizza."

* * *

Aradia left right after dinner, saying she'd only planned on staying for an hour or two (even though it had turned into nearly four). She waved goodbye to Terezi, gave a huge hug to Sollux—who was only two inches taller than her—and headed right back to her apartment, where her friend Kanaya was probably waiting.

Aradia felt guilty for making Kanaya wait that long. She hadn't anticipated having so much fun just hanging out with Sollux and Terezi, although she probably should have. He was the closest thing she had to a best friend, after all. But Kanaya needed her for moral support. She and her on-again, off-again girlfriend Vriska were apparently off right now and Kanaya wasn't taking it so well.

When Aradia finally got back to her apartment, Kanaya was already there, huddled on the floor with her back against the door and her knees drawn up to her chest.

"Aw, Kanaya, I'm so sorry," she started, crouching down to meet her eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it," her friend murmured, bowing her head.

Aradia brushed a few stray strands of hair behind Kanaya's ear. "Alright, sweetie. We don't have to talk about it. But you should at least come inside."

Kanaya nodded slowly and Aradia helped her to her feet.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get here," Aradia added, unlocking the door. She nudged it open and motioned for Kanaya to go inside first. She didn't quite believe that she wasn't about to bolt. "I kinda got caught up with Sollux.

Kanaya just nodded again like she wasn't really paying attention.

"Are you hungry? I ate not too long ago but if you want dinner, I can make some grilled cheese or something."

"I'm not hungry," Kanaya said. Even though her voice was laden with sadness, she spoke precisely and carefully. She always enunciated her words clearly. When she was happy—or at least not melancholy like she was now—her tone lent itself to an air of wisdom that seemed to follow her. It was one of the things Aradia liked best about her, and the reason she initially trusted her so much.

Now, though, she just seemed like a shell of her former self.

Kanaya and Vriska had been dating intermittently for about two and a half years. Aradia didn't like Vriska very much—she bounced back and forth between Kanaya, a boy named Tavros Nitram, and another boy named John Egbert pretty regularly, although more recently, it had just been Kanaya and John (Aradia seemed to recall someone mentioning that Tavros was dating someone else and had decided to stay away from Vriska Serket for good, of which Aradia wholeheartedly approved). Vriska had a tendency to use the people around her for their own ends and most often hurt them in the process. Kanaya was a prime example of that.

Aradia couldn't count the number of times in the past eighteen months they'd been friends that Kanaya had wound up at her apartment, crying about finding Vriska making out with someone else at school or at her house or something. Vriska didn't even have the decency of being apologetic, not until she wanted Kanaya back. She was blatant about the fact that she slept with other people, and while Aradia wouldn't condemn her for that, she couldn't help being angry that it was hurting Kanaya in the process. Kanaya would promise both herself and Aradia that she wouldn't go back to Vriska next time.

But every time Vriska apologized, her voice sultry and sweet and her eyes wide and swimming with tears, Kanaya melted and took her back, and two months later (sometimes even less), she was crying in Aradia's arms again and apologizing for dragging all her drama into Aradia's previously-quiet life.

But just like tonight, Aradia shushed her and let her curl up on the sofa, her head cradled on a pillow in Aradia's lap. She gently stroked her fingers through Kanaya's hair and the smaller girl's tears subsided into the kind of aching sadness that didn't cause sobbing, only forlorn sighs.

"She doesn't have the right to treat you this way," Aradia said for what was probably the thousandth time.

"I know. But you don't know her like I do. She can be really nice sometimes."

"Like how?"

"She…" Kanaya shrugged. "I can't explain. But she's not evil. She's nice."

"You're too good for her. You deserve someone who's going to make you a priority, not an afterthought."

Kanaya sighed and pulled a blanket over herself. "I hope you finished all your homework, because I'll be here for awhile."

Aradia smiled in spite of herself. "I always finish my homework right away. Don't worry about me." As soon as she was sure Kanaya was settled in, she turned on Netflix and they started watching _Doctor Who_.

Normally, she would pick up wherever they left their re-watching off (this time, it was about halfway through season five), but Nine was Kanaya's favorite Doctor, so Aradia started over from season one. It was sure to get her mind off this crap with Vriska, at least for a little while.

* * *

Terezi hugged Sollux goodbye and bounced out into the hallway. He closed the door and yawned loudly before turning off the TV and starting to put away his consoles and games. As soon as he'd quadruple-checked that all his games were in alphabetical order and his controllers were in their appropriate places, he began wrapping up each individual slice of pizza in tinfoil and putting them in the fridge on the second-from-the-bottom shelf (the one he'd designated for leftovers). He surveyed the rest of his apartment to make sure nothing was out of place; he didn't want to worry about it the next morning before school. Once he'd verified that everything was in order, he went to his bathroom, popped his two sleeping pills, and got ready for bed.

Right before he drifted off, he couldn't help wondering what Eridan Ampora was doing at that moment.

* * *

**See you guys in February, and like I said, my Tumblr link is on my profile page. (If you want the link to my primarily Homestuck Tumblr, shoot me a message on Tumblr. I have anon enabled!)**


	3. Act 3

**Oh my God, people, I am so sorry it took me two months to update this! I had to finish "Blue Archangel" (one of my SPN fics, but it's all complete now!) and I had to go back for the last three weeks of deployment and everything's just been so hectic but HERE IT IS! It's basically all Eridan headcanon data dump, so I hope you like this asshole. I'm actually pleased with how this chapter turned out - I can visualize Cronus's apartment really well now! (Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long to update, although it shouldn't.)**

**Many thanks to Francesca, Zexionienzo, Azoroua, Moon made of Ink, Dougibot, and one guest for your reviews to Chapter 2, and thanks to everyone who's been so patient with me! **

* * *

Eridan Ampora, as it turned out, was at that very moment half-asleep in the armchair of his douchebag older brother's living room. Cronus Ampora, three years Eridan's senior, was lighting up a cigarette and offering one to his younger brother, knowing full well that Eridan didn't smoke.

Sure enough, Eridan numbly shook his head and went back to drifting on a sea of near-unconsciousness, his fingertips lazily wearing down the cheap fabric of the grotesquely-patterned recliner he currently occupied.

Everything about Cronus's apartment was cheap and filthy (including, he liked to think, Cronus himself). The television in one corner was at least fifteen years old and had only the basic dish channels, and its box was covered in a thin layer of dust. The table that Cronus had his dirty sneakers kicked up on had scratches and dents and rings from coffee mugs, gouges from knives, paint from one of Eridan's own art projects gone awry, and a huge crack right in the middle from a hammer that one of Cronus's friends had swung in a fit of anger. The sofa had to be older than Eridan himself, with cushions that were permanently indented in the shape of his brother's ass and a few loose springs that dug into your back if you sat down in just the wrong way. There were cigarette burns and scoring from X-Acto knives on nearly every flat, solid surface in here, and every bit of fabric reeked of cigarettes, marijuana, and stale Cheez-Its.

If Eridan loved his brother a little less, he would never set foot here.

As it was, their parents had long since given up on their elder son, who had seemingly transported himself to the 1950s; he fancied himself a rockabilly greaser and always had his dark hair slicked back, matched with faded jeans, a white T-shirt, and a black leather jacket. He'd also acquired the habit of stowing cigarettes behind his ears and rolling whole packs into the sleeves of his shirt. He walked with a self-assured swagger and referred to guys as "daddy-o" and girls as "doll." Eridan really wanted to punch him in the face sometimes, even though he knew his own personal style was far from laudable. (He still liked to think it was superior, however.)

Still, he did love his brother and crashed at his place a few nights a week. Specifically, nights before he had school. He typically went home for the weekends, but this weekend had been an exception. That class project with Karkat Vantas had absorbed most of his free time, so he gave Cronus a heads-up that he'd be staying all weekend, and that was that.

In his pocket, his phone buzzed, and he roused himself long enough to answer Feferi's text message with a slow smile crossing his face.

"Who's that?" Cronus asked, a note of teasing in his voice. His eyes were also drifting closed, but he still somehow mustered the energy to mess with his brother. "Got a girlfriend?"

He hoped. Feferi was his best friend, but he hoped they could turn it into something more. He was so in love with her, it was stupid. He just hadn't worked up the courage to tell her yet. His main issue with telling her was the doubt of if she felt the same—although he secretly thought she did. Girls were just so damn hard to read—he couldn't quite discern her actual intentions half of the time. But they texted constantly, so that had to count for something, right? They'd kept up a nice flow of conversation the night before while that Sollux guy had—

_Hmm._ He did remember that Sollux guy. Fairly cute, in a lanky, nerdy, awkward kind of way. Sollux had those deep eyes and those perfect-looking lips, which Eridan could see even from halfway across the room and in half-light. He could appreciate those features even though he didn't swing that way. Nothing wrong at all with admiring a sort-of attractive guy. It was the twenty-first century, after all. Men could appreciate other attractive men without it being gay or anything.

Eridan shook his head. "Not really. Not yet." He couldn't resist a small smile at his phone. _Maybe soon, though._

"Boyfriend, then?" Cronus asked with a deliberate waggle of his eyebrows.

The younger Ampora rolled his eyes. "I'm not gay."

"You don't got to be gay to have a boyfriend. I'm a surprisingly liberal cat."

"I'm not bi, either," Eridan said, deliberately ignoring Cronus's slang.

The wannabe greaser shrugged. "Just sayin', a cat doesn't look at his phone like that unless he likes the doll he's talkin' to."

"Fuck off." He _did_ like Fef—a lot, in fact. He just didn't want that fact thrown in his face, especially by his brother. It was sensitive, the fact that he hadn't told her.

Cronus just laughed, tilting his head back as he closed his eyes. He exhaled a stream of smoke toward the ceiling. "You need to cool it. You're bad news, daddy-o."

"Shut up." He was really starting to piss off Eridan, getting to the point where he was considering going to bed a few hours early. He normally racked out around midnight or twelve-thirty since his first class was at nine and it only took him about an hour to get ready and get to school. It was just a little after ten right now and he just wanted to be away from what passed for Cronus's sense of humor. After all, he'd eaten and done his homework. There was really nothing else for him to do tonight—any TV show he normally watched didn't air on Sunday night and his brother generally dominated the television anyway ("I pay the cable bill, so I get to watch all the TV Land I want"). The only thing really keeping him awake after his long weekend was his back-and-forth with Fef.

Finally, though, he grew weary of listening to his brother's ribbing, good-natured or not, and pushed himself out of the armchair, leaving Cronus in the living room with his cigarette still dangling from his lip.

As soon as his bedroom door closed behind him, Eridan let out a relieved sigh and sank onto his futon. If he could hardly stand to spend twenty minutes in the living room, his own bedroom was the opposite of that. True, it was a little smaller than the room he was used to, the one at his parents' house, but he'd made sure that it had most of the same comforts (he'd had to compromise on the sound system, but the one here wasn't bad and he didn't exactly trust Cronus with the higher-quality one anyway). The room was the only one in the apartment that didn't stink of old food—Eridan made sure there was always oil in the Glade Plug-In he left running every day. The walls were clean, and the only evidence of marks came from tape residue or thumbtacks from posters and projects he put up and took down with a frightening regularity. The sheets on his futon were laundered every other day he was home, the color still the royal purple he favored despite the frequent washings, and the futon itself was large enough to comfortably fit two (although he always slept alone). He was content to let his five-foot-eleven frame sprawl out as he slept, and he was used to waking up twisted up in the sheets.

There was a desk in the corner, a dark mahogany piece from Crate & Barrel, that held his desktop Mac and, when he was home, his 21-inch MacBook Pro. Pens and pencils and markers were neatly arranged in cups with a fastidious attention to order that Eridan ensured never touched any other area of the apartment. If he let himself, his neatnik tendencies could propel him to clear out the whole flat, throwing away a good two-thirds of his brother's belongings in the process. He had to constantly remind himself that Cronus was a big boy and could keep his apartment however he wanted; only his room would be his sanctuary.

His closet was smaller than he liked, too, but he remedied this by hauling in and assembling a standup wardrobe and a dresser that contained the rest of his clothing, what little he no longer kept at home with his parents. He had his shirts organized by color (mostly purple or black with some blues thrown in; he favored bruise colors for reasons he didn't care to fathom) and cut, his pants by color and fabric, and his shoes by brand (typically either Converse or Macbeth, but he had a few by Gucci as well as some other more high-end designers). The three or four suits he owned (and that were not at his parents' house) had been pushed all the way to the side; he seldom wore even one and he had no idea when he would.

Eridan stripped off his sweater and shirt, tossing them in the basket near the door, before stripping out of his jeans and giving them the same treatment. He pulled open the top-right drawer of his dresser and withdrew a pair of purple flannel sweatpants and a white A-line shirt, his bedtime wear, donning them quickly and knocking his thick glasses askew in the process. He squinted before replacing them on his nose—he was horribly nearsighted, and he knew his vision was only getting worse.

He withdrew his evening towel from his closet, rummaged in his desk drawer for his shampoo, conditioner, and body wash (again, not trusting that his brother wouldn't either sabotage them or just use them), and pulled a clean pair of boxers out of the appropriate dresser drawer before heading out to the bathroom.

The only time Eridan truly felt comfortable was when he was in the water—whether it be in the pool or the sea or the bathtub. That was about the only thing he had in common with Cronus, although you wouldn't know it from looking at the elder Ampora. Eridan loved showering and spent almost two hours a day in the shower. Part of it was out of necessity—he always had an exorbitant amount of product in his hair that required excessive scrubbing to remove—but most of it was because he enjoyed standing under the stream of water and just feeling clean. He just loved it.

After nearly an hour in the shower (Cronus was used to his abnormally long showers, and Eridan was just grateful that the water bill was a flat rate, independant of usage), he finally got out and toweled himself off, wrapping the towel around his waist after he finished. He quickly and carefully took his blowdryer to his hair (he absolutely refused to go to bed with wet hair), humming in satisfaction once it held no trace of water. He ran his fingers through his hair once to ensure it was completely dry, enjoying the feel of perfectly clean hair. He'd never go out without gel in his hair, but when he was home, he liked the freedom of not having to worry about it, even with his hair hanging in his face.

He put on his clean underwear and slipped back into his pajamas. Once he gathered up his various bottles from the shower, he slunk out of the bathroom, called out a hasty "good night" to his brother (who was still staring at the wall, but now with the distinct scent of marijuana wafting overhead), and closed his bedroom door tightly behind him again.

He tossed his towel and boxers into the clothes basket, put the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash back in the appropriate drawer, and slid his glasses off his face. Running one hand through his hair again (he'd have to dye his hair again; his roots were coming in and he made a mental note to pick up black and purple dye from the drugstore down the street), he crawled under his covers and sighed contentedly, feeling himself already nodding off. He sent a brief but smiley-filled good-night text message to Fef and plugged his phone in on his nightstand. He snapped his bedside light off and was asleep minutes later, his dreams filled with her and a certain pair of almost-feminine lips that his mind wouldn't allow him to recognize. When he woke up the next morning, he had no recollection of his dreams.


	4. Act 4

**Sorry for the delay in finishing/uploading this chapter. I bought a new truck a few weeks ago and then some really shitty things happened over the past week (none of which involve my new truck, but there it is). The point is, I've been very busy and it's only through the mercy of a shipmate that I was given today off, so I'm writing today. You could say I...*puts on sunglasses* have a lot of irons in the fire.**

**Many thanks to KatzeSchnee, dragonspirit1223331, Zexioniezo, and one guest for your reviews to the last chapter! I haven't given up on this story! (It's just really hard to write without an outline.)**

* * *

Sollux's alarm went off at six-thirty the next morning. He tapped the screen of his phone to snooze the alarm and buried his head under his pillow. He did this every morning he had school, but it never got easier.

He'd just settled back into a light doze when the same song pierced into his consciousness. He let out a groan and groped for his phone to silence the alarm, but his fingertips knocked the phone off his nightstand and the song kept right on playing. Sighing in resignation, he tumbled out of bed, turned off the alarm, and went to his closet.

Yellow shirt, gray jeans, black sneakers with the red and blue laces all went flying onto his bed before he grabbed a change of boxers and went to take a shower. If nothing else, water hitting him generally woke him up.

Ten minutes later, he toweled himself off, put in his contact lens, brushed his teeth, and started getting dressed, tossing his dirty clothes in the basket in his closet. Since he had leftover pizza, he unwrapped two slices, stuck them on a plate, and put them in the microwave to heat up.

He was out of his apartment by seven-fifteen, slinging his messenger bag across his chest and closing the door tightly behind him. He patted down his pockets to check for his phone, wallet, and keys, and, as he verified he had all his necessary belongings, the elevator doors slid open and he stepped inside.

There was only one other occupant of the elevator, a slightly-shorter young man with sunglasses and bleached-blond hair. He had a bag over his shoulder as well and his white shirt had a picture of a scratched record on it. Sollux was pretty sure he recognized him from school. What was his name? Dan? Dan Walker?

"Hey," Sollux mumbled, trying to figure out who the Hell this guy was.

"Sup," the blond answered, barely inclining his head in Sollux's direction.

He dismissed it, giving up on the boy's name. The apartments in this building (and, honestly, on the whole block) were popular residences for the student population—cheap and close to campus. He wasn't surprised he recognized other students.

The other boy had obviously had a long weekend, though. His head was bowed and his eyes were closed behind his sunglasses. The headphones hanging around his neck were issuing some song that Sollux couldn't quite make out, but it had a heavy bass beat. He'd probably gotten to sleep late, and Sollux rubbed his own eyes in sympathy. If he didn't get at least nine hours, he was utterly unable to function.

The ride down to the first floor was silent save the song from the other boy's headphones. The elevator didn't make another stop until it bumped and the doors slid open on the first floor. The blond practically dashed out of the elevator, absconding with such speed that Sollux was temporarily stunned. It almost seemed like he was being chased by invisible ninjas.

Recovering, he stepped out of the elevator and headed for the door that the other boy had just darted through.

* * *

Aradia was already at school, in the building that housed the cafeteria and the rooms where all the campus's clubs and organizations met. She was sitting in a corner, nursing a cup of coffee, and lazily carding her fingers through the hair of someone who had her head down on the table. Feeling his eyebrow quirk up in curiosity, he approached them and waved to Aradia. "Hey, AA."

"Good morning, Sollux."

"Who's this?" he asked, hyperaware of his lisp. He felt the bizarre compulsion to check his reflection in his phone to make sure he'd put in his contact lens even though he distinctly recalled putting it in this morning.

"This is my friend Kanaya."

The girl with her head down raised her hand in a wave but didn't look up. Her dark hair was cut short, a bob with the ends curled up, and it skimmed the table top.

"She's not having a good morning."

"I'm not having a pleasant _month_," Kanaya corrected, her voice slightly muffled by the table.

"Right. She's not having a good month."

As a few more people started trickling into the building—including the blond guy he'd seen on the elevator; he was accompanied by a boy he didn't recognize with dark hair and a good-natured grin, and he seemed to be talking the other boy's ear off-Sollux pulled out the chair next to Aradia and pushed the bag that currently occupied it onto the floor. Aradia shot him a dirty look and righted her bag. "Sorry about that," he said. He internally debated on whether or not to ask what was wrong with Kanaya—she seemed genuinely upset even though he couldn't see her face—but the lady in question let out a frustrated groan.

"I fail to comprehend how I so horribly misunderstand females, considering I am one myself," she said finally, lifting her head. She smoothed out her bangs and Sollux saw that her lipstick was black.

Funny. She wasn't dressed like a Goth. Sure, that red floor-length skirt was a little odd, but her shirt was white and she wasn't wearing three pounds of eye makeup. She was actually quite pretty in a classic way, with deep brown eyes and full lips.

"Her now-ex-girlfriend is..." Aradia mentally fumbled for an appropriate description. "Well, a bitch is the simplest explanation," she finished.

"Kindly refrain from being overly harsh. I do still regard her fondly," Kanaya grumbled.

"Kanaya, she treats you like crap with no regard for your feelings and she plays with you and at least one other person. It's not fair and you know it." Aradia's tone had taken on a gentleness, and Sollux got the feeling that they'd had this discussion before.

"I am aware," the other girl murmured. She sighed again and set her head back down, covering her face with her arms. "I simply wish that you would not speak of her so discourteously."

Aradia rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Alright. Just because you asked, I'll keep my opinion to myself."

"Thank you."

Sollux felt awkward there, but it was shortly after eight and his first class didn't start until nine. With no other choice, he quickly excused himself, went to the small meal line along the far wall, and started preparing a cup of tea. He grabbed a bag of Lipton Black Tea (he didn't typically favor something so simple, but the school didn't have a lot of variety) and stuck it in a Styrofoam cup. After adding the hot water from the cappuccino machine, he upended one of the bear-shaped bottles of honey and squeezed almost a tablespoon into the cup. He took a plastic spoon from a little further down the line and stirred it in before lifting the cup to his lips.

_Perfect._ He could barely taste the bitterness of the tea underneath all the honey. Just the way he liked it.

He started to head back to Aradia and Kanaya's table when the door opened again and in sailed that Eridan Ampora guy from Saturday night.

Eridan had a girl next to him, but Sollux barely noticed her. For three interminable seconds, he found himself staring at the other boy, unable to look away.

He hadn't been able to really register Eridan's appearance while he'd been at Karkat's place, but now that he saw him in the light of day, he could easily see, even from this distance, that his eyes almost looked purple. _Maybe he's wearing contacts_, Sollux thought, _or maybe it's the hair_. He had a purple streak in his hair, a four-inch-long stripe of color from his bangs back, standing out against the black of the rest of his hair. Even though it was easily sixty-five degrees outside, Eridan was wearing a blue scarf wound around his neck at least three times, a black shirt, and black-and-blue striped jeans. For Sollux, everything screeched to a halt when Eridan Ampora in his ridiculous getup and douchebag hipster hair and too-big glasses amplifying his too-intense stare walked into that room.

But then he snapped himself out of it and quickly turned on his heel, heading right back to Aradia and Kanaya.

"HEY! BEANPOLE!" an annoyingly familiar voice screeched across the cafeteria, and Sollux visibly winced.

"Fuck," he muttered, and turned right back around to level a bored stare at Karkat, who had managed to slip in unnoticed behind Eridan and the girl.

Ampora, the female standing next to him, and just about everyone else in the cafeteria looked from Karkat to Sollux—the only person in his general vicinity to warrant the nickname of "beanpole'—and back, and it was more than enough to have him wonder wildly how long it would take for him to sprint back to Aradia's table, snatch his backpack, and abscond from the scene. Probably too long, considering he wasn't a runner by any stretch of the imagination, and besides, everyone was looking. Karkat had already caught sight of him, and he'd already acknowledged the clarion call. It was too late. With a sigh of resignation—and one last glance at Eridan, who was still looking at him—he finally headed toward Karkat. "What do you want?" he asked, carefully not using words with sibilance.

"Hey, I owe you one for helping me out on Saturday," Karkat answered with uncharacteristic humility—and a decidedly lowered volume. "I know you didn't have anything for breakfast," he added, causing Sollux to roll his eyes, "so you should have some real food. Something besides tea. My treat."

Sollux took a moment to sip his tea, arching an incredulous eyebrow toward the food line. "You think _that_ could be called real food?"

Karkat shrugged, his typically-annoyed expression sliding back into place. "It's better than nothing at all, asshat. Accept the return of the fucking favor."

"Actually, KK, I did eat today. I had leftover pizza. I'm really not that hungry."

"Maybe lunch, then. We could all catch a bite. I wouldn't mind getting chummy with a few more of your friends," the girl beside Eridan said brightly. For the first time, Sollux really noticed her and got a good look. She was about six inches taller than Karkat, who made nearly anyone look like a giant in comparison. Her long brown hair was curly and looked like it was still a bit damp from that morning's shower, and he was pretty sure there was a bathing suit strap peeking out from underneath her magenta-colored shirt. He wondered if she was a swimmer. Then he caught sight of a set of sport goggles dangling from the side of her backpack, basically confirming his hypothesis. She was probably a great swimmer—and the bit of leg he glimpsed underneath her blue-and-green skirt seemed to support that as well. She had some really nice legs.

Karkat groaned and rolled his eyes. Eridan scoffed. "As fish puns go, that one was pretty fuckin' tame," Ampora said. Sollux realized it was the first time he'd heard the guy actually talk. His voice wasn't unpleasant—it was a bit deeper than he expected, and a little more drawling than he was used to. He had the air of one who was used to being the center of attention, enjoyed it, and expected it.

"Hush. Don't you make fun of my fish puns! I'm Feferi, by the way," she added with a wave.

"Um." There was no way he could get out of introducing himself now, unless—

"Right. This is Sollux Captor, high school best friend, and tech whiz extraordinaire," Karkat explained.

"Hi," Sollux mumbled. Feferi was still smiling at him and her bright green eyes were actually really pretty. She was a really nice-looking girl. A little rounder than most of the girls he liked, but it looked to be more muscle than anything else.

"So lunch then?" Karkat asked, returning his attention to Sollux.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I—that'll be fine. Why not?" He glanced again and Feferi and Eridan, and wondered if both of them would be present as well. He didn't know how long he could avoiding using words with an S. Maybe he could play off not speaking much as a total social ineptness.

"Awesome! My class before lunch ends at twelve-fifteen so I can meet you guys somewhere," Feferi said excitedly. _Bubbly_ was the word that floated up in Sollux's head, and he nearly laughed at the description.

"Well, our bio class ends at noon," Karkat started, but Eridan cut in smoothly.

"I can drive us somewhere. No sense in takin' the bus if we don't gotta."

A lot of students at school lived on their own or in apartments near campus. A lot fewer had their own cars. Sollux raised his eyebrow, wondering how rich Eridan was to be able to afford a car, and why he was going to a third-rate college like this one anyway.

"Where are we going then?" Sollux asked suspiciously. He thought this was going to be a cafeteria lunch, but it seemed like Feferi had inadvertently turned it into a big excursion.

"Oooh, how about that one vegan place a couple miles from here?" Feferi suggested.

Karkat groaned again. "Fef, I think you overestimate my budget."

"It's not that expensive!" she said with a pout.

_Jesus. This is insane._ "Look, how about we go to Rubio's?" He realized, a beat too late, that Rubio's had an S. He waited for the inevitable snicker at his lisp.

It didn't come. Feferi didn't seem to notice, Karkat already knew about it, and Eridan subtly glanced at him, raising his eyebrows slightly, but said nothing aside from, "I'm okay with that if you are."

"Yeah, that's a fuck-ton better for my budget," Karkat said.

Feferi's pout grew more pronounced. "I don't know what you're angling for, but I guess that's okay."

Karkat smacked his forehead at the fish pun and Sollux quickly said goodbye, returning to Aradia's table with his tea all but cold in his cup. He was pretty sure he felt eyes on him as he left, but he didn't turn to see who was watching him.

* * *

**Still giggling a bit over "Dan Walker" (it's Dave Strider, but we'll meet him later! All of the Alternian trolls and Beta Kids, along with a few Beforus trolls and maybe one Alpha Kid, will be in this story!). I slay me.**

**I can't write fish puns for crap...**


	5. Act 5

**Um. So, sorry about the wait. Again, busy. But I'm falling in love with Homestuck again. Thanks to Zexionienzo, YaoiOverload, dragonspirit1223331, BlOo KiSsEs, kia-likethecar, Izumi-no-Junko, and one guest for your reviews!**

**I will probably be updating this before anything else. I have big plans for this 'verse! (Also, the next update should be within a few days since I only have school right now.)**

* * *

"Hey, Karkat!" John called cheerfully, sliding into the seat next to the shorter boy. "How was your weekend?"

John had the kind of bubbly personality that usually drove Karkat into a frothing rage, a kind of effervescent brightness typically reserved for the uninhibited optimist. It did infuriate Karkat, but it was more of an affectionate irritation than anything else. Karkat had the sense that John was always happy because of his outlook on life, not on some ill-conceived notions of how the world worked.

On John's other side, a blond boy slouched, pulling his headphones over his ears to drown out the last few moments of chatter before the class actually started. This, Karkat knew, was how unashamed cool-kid Dave Strider operated. He would often keep his headphones and dark sunglasses on all during class and somehow come away with detailed notes on the entire lecture. Karkat had a begrudging admiration to give absolutely zero fucks about school and still manage to ace his classes.

"Ever-fucking bullshit. I got a virus on my computer—" (he knew that was a lie, but he also wasn't convinced that Sollux hadn't pulled some bullshit tech-whiz sorcery to fix whatever _was_ wrong with his laptop) "—and this was _after_ I had to start on my pan-humping bio project."

John made an appropriately sympathetic face. "Sorry. Did you get it fixed?"

"Yeah, my friend Sollux fixed it."

"And your project?"

"Finished. Mostly thanks to Ampora, I guess."

John furrowed his brow and pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. His glasses appeared perpetually in danger of falling off his face and his dark hair was always untidy, as if he couldn't be bothered to run a comb through it. At least Karkat attempted to tame his hair—the fact that he didn't typically succeed didn't particularly bother him, however. "Ampora? Eridan Ampora? That hipster guy with the scarf and the glasses?"

Karkat thought it was a bit ironic of John to point out Eridan's glasses—his biology partner's glasses were only a few millimeters thicker than John's; he didn't have a whole lot of room to talk. Still, he nodded. "He's a genius at that kind of crap," he acknowledged.

"Huh. I always heard he was kind of a dick."

"Being a genius and being a dick aren't mutually exclusive," Dave drawled from John's other side. Strider didn't talk much, so when he did, people—John included—paid attention. "In fact," he went on in a lazy Austin drawl that had no business in southern California, "most geniuses _are_ dicks."

"Yeah, just look at Strider over here," Karkat snarked. His ribbing was fairly good-natured, though. He typically reserved his most barbed comments for people he actively disliked.

"Aw, thanks, Vantas," Dave said. He flashed Karkat a quick, cheesy grin before facing forward again. "Nice to know other people appreciate my dope flow and sweet rhymes."

John cackled and a satisfied smirk tugged at the corner of Dave's mouth before his expression resolved into the neutral, cool one he always wore.

At that moment, an annoying chirping sound issued from somewhere around the vicinity of John's backpack, and he immediately dug around for his phone. He fished it out and checked it.

Karkat and Dave both happened to be looking at him and saw the way the laughter died almost immediately off John's face.

"Don't," Dave muttered. "Give me that."

"I—I have to... uh, I gotta get this," John stuttered.

"No." Dave reached over and plucked the phone out of John's hand. "Fuck her. We talked about this, remember? Just leave it."

"I... I can't. Dave. Give it back."

There was a few moments where John stared at Dave and Dave presumably stared back at John, but it was difficult to tell through his sunglasses. Karkat, meanwhile, watched the whole scene with a mix of concern and curiosity. He thought he knew John fairly well, but he couldn't figure out who the mystery caller could be. Who could affect eternally-chipper John Egbert so completely, wipe the prankster grin off his face so quickly and replace that smile with such an ashen expression?

"What—?" he started, but caught the way Dave shook his head, two quick jerks to one side and then the other, and he shut up.

"Please, Dave," John murmured. "Give me my phone back."

It was nearly impossible to see the look on Dave's face, but he finally relented and handed John's phone back to him. "You can't let her control you like this."

John didn't answer. He just snatched his phone and darted out the classroom door seconds before their professor walked in, shooting a puzzled look after him.

"Well, if Mr. Egbert won't be joining us... do we have any other absentees?"

_WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?_ Karkat wrote out on a sheet of looseleaf. He folded it up and passed it to Dave as surreptitiously as possible.

_Hasn't John ever mentioned Vriska to you?_

Karkat thought hard. He thought the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't figure out how. _HE MIGHT HAVE. WHO IS SHE?_

_Vriska Serket, also known as the most sickening person on the planet. She's been stringing John along for months now. Him and some other boy and a girl, believe it or not._

_THREE PEOPLE? SOUNDS EXHAUSTING._

_Yeah, well, apparently this other boy isn't really seeing her anymore. He has someone else, from what I understand. But John and this girl, she's been fucking them both over._

_SOUNDS EVIL._

_Probably. But I haven't met her and I'm withholding judgement until I actually do, as hard as that's going been. John really likes her, but she just uses people._

_YOU'D THINK HE'D HAVE THE THINK SPAN TO REALIZE SHE'S NO GOOD._

_He does, but he doesn't want to let her go yet. She's got him on a real tight leash and, like it or not, he's gonna have to be the one to cut it. I can't do it for him._

Karkat shoved the note into his back pocket and looked from the clock on the wall to the door. Through the glass, he could see John standing across the hall with the hood of his blue sweatshirt pulled up over his hair. His shoulders were hunched, and Karkat couldn't help feeling some small stirrings of pity that he quickly pushed away.

He couldn't be John Egbert's keeper. He could barely look after himself.

* * *

The clacking of keyboards was a soothing sound for Sollux, who easily lost himself in lines and lines of code. Programming made him remember just how much he hated people. People, after all, were illogical and irrational and prone to holding grudges. They changed unpredictably. They could wake up one morning and decide they didn't like you anymore. Code and programs could be manipulated to your heart's content and if something didn't work right the first time, you could go back and fix it, and the program wouldn't hold it against you. Each command did something specific, and if it didn't, you entered the command wrong and it was easy to remedy. They were predictable.

Computers didn't laugh at your lisp, either. That was a huge point in their favor. He liked computers a lot better than he liked people.

Most people, anyway. Terezi was a bit of an exception.

He was never able to figure out what she took that programming class for anyway since she was a pre-law student, but he wasn't unhappy to see her most days. It was just odd when she appeared over his shoulder and sniffed. "Hey, Sollux!" she said with a toothy, mischievous grin. "I thought something smelled familiar!"

Sollux rolled his eyes. "Can you not?"

"Don't be so sour," she said, sticking out her tongue. "You mainline honey—aren't you supposed to be sweet?"

Sollux chuckled in spite of himself. "That's an urban legend," he murmured, shaking his head. "You can't get sweet from eating sugary food."

Terezi scoffed. "Sure, whatever. Speaking of which, what are we doing for lunch?"

"We—" Suddenly, he remembered he'd made lunch plans with Karkat and his friends. He smacked his forehead against the table his keyboard was on, drawing a brief, chastising glance from one of his other classmates. "Crap. I told KK I'd go to lunch with him."

"Who?"

Sollux raised his eyebrows. "Karkat Vantas? I know I mentioned him. I fixed his computer on Saturday, remember?"

"Oh! That guy! Yeah, I remember you talking about him. Why does he want to have lunch with you? I thought you guys weren't that close."

"Yeah, well, he wanted to thank me for fixing his computer, so he decided to take me out to lunch. His lab partner and _his_ girlfriend are coming along, too, I guess. The lab partner is giving us a ride."

"Sounds painful," Terezi said. Her smile didn't quite fit the statement, though.

"Yeah, well, the girlfriend seems pretty cool. Doesn't mean I want to hang out with all of them, though."

"Well, maybe you'll get some new friends out of the deal. God knows you can't hang out with just me and Aradia every day." She suddenly looked like she'd been hit by a bolt of inspiration. "Hey, why don't I go with you? I'd like to meet these elusive friends of yours anyway."

"They're not my friends. I mean, Karkat _was_, but he's not really anymore, and Eridan—"

"Gah, I'm just joking! But I still want to come along," she added, bouncing in her seat a bit. "So, can I?"

"Um. I guess if Eridan has room in his car, probably. I can't imagine that KK will mind too much."

Her toothy grin widened. "Excellent! Where ya going?"

"Rubio's. Hope you like fish tacos."

Terezi waggled her eyebrows. "Never really had a taste for them, but there's a first time for everything."

Sollux sighed. "Are you planning on doing some actual programming exercises today, or were you just going to talk my ear off?"

"You're no fun, Sollux." Still, she turned in her seat and fished her blind-friendly keyboard out of her backpack to hook it up to her computer. Less than a minute later, she was typing away next to him.

A few minutes later, though, he'd pushed his keyboard away from him and turned to look at her. Terezi wasn't the greatest at relationship advice—he couldn't remember the last time she had a boyfriend—but she was smart. "AA's friend Kanaya. You know her?"

"Hmm." Terezi continued typing, but her expression grew pensive. For a moment, the rhythm of her keystrokes faltered. "I might have heard the name. Why?"

"Apparently Kanaya's hung up on her ex, and AA's taken it upon herself to comfort her."

"Okay, and?"

"And... I don't know. I was just wondering."

"Maybe it's best for Kanaya that she dumped her, though. She's probably better off without her anyway."

"Um. Okay. That was pretty much what AA was saying. But Kanaya isn't so sure."

"If you had just gotten dumped by someone you loved, would you be so easily convinced?"

Sollux pondered that for a minute. "I'd imagine not. However, I don't have any actual experience to know."

Terezi's face split into another grin. "Aw, don't worry, Sol. Some day, your princess—or prince—will come," she joked. "In fact, they could be coming right now."

He blinked. "Did you just—"

"Yep. Deal with it."

He rolled his eyes, but they lapsed into another comfortable silence. Sollux pulled his keyboard back toward him and resumed his coding, pausing for a few moments to send a text message to Karkat. _Hey KK my friiend TZ want2 two come wiith u2 two Rubiio'2 thiink ED wiill have enough room iin hii2 car?_ He slipped his phone back in his pocket and waited. Sure enough, a few moments later, he received a response.

_THIS IS WHY I HATE TALKING TO YOU. I CAN BARELY READ YOU OVER YOUR STUPID TYPING QUIRK. WHO THE FLIPPING FUCK IS TZ._

_TZ iis Terezii 2he'2 iin my codiing class._

_CODING CLASS. WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCK DO YOU NEED A CODING CLASS._

_Ea2y A can 2he come or not?_

_GREAT ANOTHER PAN HUMPING TECH WHIZ. SURE, FINE, WHY NOT. WE CAN MAKE IT AN ASSHOLE PARTY. BETWEEN YOU AND ERIDAN AND JOHN, I DON'T KNOW WHO'S GOING TO DRIVE ME TO MULTIPLE HOMICIDE FIRST._

* * *

Eridan leaned back in his seat and let his eyes drift across the classroom. He barely paid attention to his math teacher's lecture. After all, everything this guy could have possibly told him, he already knew. Not that his grades would show it, but he was a smart person.

Book-smart, anyway. It didn't usually do him a whole lot of good in real life. Like this thing with Feferi. And that Sollux guy—he'd caught the way he'd looked her over. He felt his hackles raise in anger. No one got to look at Fef like that, especially someone who didn't even know her.

He gritted his teeth and checked his phone. There was still a good thirty minutes left in class, and forty-five minutes before his biology class with Karkat. The sooner they got this lunch over with, the better. At least that way, he and Feferi could happily avoid ever having contact with Sollux Captor again.

And maybe soon he could finally work up the courage to tell Fef how he really felt about her.

* * *

**I promise not to bounce around so much in the future...**


	6. Act 6

**Sorry about the wait, but at least it wasn't as bad as the last one. I think I'm just going to be working on this one and kind of...disregard my SPN fics for the moment. I have a lot of Homestuck feels right now (YESTERDAY'S UPD8 OMG I AM SCREAMING WHY THIS).**

**Thanks to Artimashunt, YAOIYAOIYAOIYAOI, and BlOo KiSsEs for your reviews!**

**So. Last Sunday was my birthday. I turned 23. Leave me reviews as a birthday present.**

* * *

Terezi hung onto Sollux's arm so tightly that he was sure it would take a week for all the feeling in his fingers to return. Her white cane was a blur as she twirled it at her side, grinning in an almost malicious way (he wasn't sure if she meant to look that creepy or if it came naturally) as he led her to where Karkat and Eridan were waiting in the cafeteria area. Neither of them looked particularly thrilled to see him, Eridan moreso than Karkat, and both of them looked puzzled at Terezi's presence.

She didn't seem to notice their reaction (her being blind and all) and introduced herself with all the showmanship she could muster. "Hey, boys! I'm Terezi!"

"Uh, Eridan."

"Karkat."

"Sollux said that Karkat said I could come," she added, flashing her teeth in the direction of Eridan's voice.

"I didn't fucking think he was serious!"

"Calm down, dick-shit. I'm not gonna be a bother," Terezi said, finally letting go of Sollux's arm. He wasn't sure if she was genuinely annoyed or not, but he was already regretting this decision.

"Who are you calling dick-shit, void-humper?" Karkat shot back.

"You, ass-wagon!"

"Fuck, will you two calm down?" Sollux said, moving to stand between the two. He looked at Karkat first. "Don't antagonize the blind girl, jerk. She has a cane and she will hit you." He turned to face Terezi. "Don't antagonize the jerk, blind girl. He has a short fuse and he will explode."

"Wait, you're blind? And who are you calling short?" Karkat demanded from Terezi and Sollux in turn, his voice raising even higher.

"Bluh, of course I'm blind. Check the cane, douche-nozzle," she said. She waved her cane around for emphasis.

Karkat fumed silently in response. Terezi giggled as Eridan rolled his eyes. "Stop flirtin', kids. It's gettin' annoyin'."

Sollux rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was going to be a long lunch.

Fortunately, Feferi didn't seem to mind having another girl to talk to. She and Terezi chatted comfortably from the time they piled into Eridan's gleaming purple car (Sollux sensed he had a purple fetish) all the way through lunch. Karkat, for his part, was mercifully quiet, as if the revelation of Terezi's blindness had genuinely stunned him.

Feferi had even opted to sit in the back next to Terezi, with Karkat on Terezi's other side, leaving Sollux in the front seat next to Eridan. Maybe he'd misinterpreted Eridan and Feferi's relationship. Not that he'd been in a relationship for a long time, but it seemed to him that if they were actually dating, they'd probably want to sit together.

"Is this it?" Eridan asked incredulously as he pulled into the parking lot. He peered up at the huge sign proclaiming the restaurant to be Rubio's as if it was somehow a lie.

"Yeah, we're here," Sollux said. He unbuckled his seatbelt and slid out of the car.

Feferi craned her neck to look from the sign to the actual restaurant. "Oh. Fish tacos?"

"This place has the best seafood tacos ever!" Terezi enthused.

Sollux caught the glance Feferi and Eridan exchanged and sighed. "They have vegan-friendly food, too," he said. He supposed he should have realized earlier that she was a vegan, considering she suggested a vegan place, but he hadn't been paying that much attention. "And regular Mexican food, if you're of a mind."

Feferi smiled again. "Oh. That's good, then! Now let's go—I'm starving!"

Sollux led the way to the door, pointlessly hoping that the sooner they ate, the sooner they could leave. He got in line as Eridan and Feferi came through with Karkat and Terezi bringing up the rear—even though she didn't exactly need the help finding her way to the door, he seemed to have taken up the task of guiding her, the two of them bickering the whole way. Sollex felt a little guilty for just leaving her with him, though. She didn't deserve that.

He'd just placed his orderand started to pull out his wallet when Karkat's harsh screech reached his ears. "Sollux Captor, you back your freakishly skinny, leet-hacker ass up from that pay station! I'm repaying you, remember?!"

Sollux closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses, and took a quick step back—right into Eridan. The other boy seemed momentarily stunned by the impact but recovered quickly, shoving Sollux away from him with a curt, "Watch it, asshole."

It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn he heard Eridan's voice trip on the W sound. He ignored it though, sidestepped Terezi (whom he'd narrowly missed when Eridan shoved him), and shot the other boy a murderous look. Eridan seemed constantly to be annoyed with something, and Sollux wasn't sure why, but it was starting to get on his nerves. If he never saw him after today, he would be just fine with it.

Terezi ordered next, having long since memorized the menu (which was fortunate, since she couldn't actually read it), and Karkat followed her. After Feferi and Eridan conferred quietly with each other, they ordered the same thing: a vegan burrito with the works. Sollux caught the way Eridan insisted on paying for both of them, as well as the annoyed way Feferi tossed her hair and insisted right back that he shouldn't pay for her food all the time.

_Ah._ Now he could see it. They weren't dating, but he clearly wanted to be. She, on the other hand, was either unaware of Eridan's true affections or chose to ignore them. He wondered how badly he'd been shot down before this.

Still, she'd probably made the right call. The thought of anyone actually wanting to _date_ that asshole was both hysterical and horrifying.

They took a booth near the door, Eridan and Feferi on one side and Karkat, Terezi, and Sollux crammed onto the other bench (although in all fairness, the three of them were about equal to the other two). Sollux purposely avoided looking at anyone, choosing to stare down at his fingernails and his receipt until he heard his number called, while the other four started a meaningless conversation. It was a relief to leave them, honestly—Terezi and Karkat had started to squabble again, although it didn't sound as harsh as Karkat usually liked it.

He waited at the counter until the other four orders were up, mostly as an excuse to stay away from them. He'd begun to feel the stirrings of a mania attack (as he called the upswing of his bipolar disorder) coming on and wanted to calm down without causing an incident. He'd been off his bipolar medication for a few months now and he'd been doing okay up until this point, but this whole situation grated on his nerves like nothing else. He actually wished that it had been Aradia to come with him today instead of Terezi because she was the only one who knew he was off his meds (Karkat still thought he was on them) and was also the only one of his few friends who didn't actively try to irritate him. In fact, she took a great amount of pleasure in being able to calm him.

Eridan and Feferi's burritos were deposited on his tray along with their drinks, followed a few moments later by Terezi's taco plate and Karkat's quesadilla and their drinks. Resigning himself to rejoining the group, he picked up the laden tray and headed back to the table.

"Order up," he half-joked. Maybe he really should have considered taking his meds again if he was going to insist on making stupid cracks like that, but he didn't really like popping more pills than he had to.

Everyone grabbed their food off the tray and dug in, and for a few minutes, the only sound besides chewing was Feferi exclaiming over how good her burrito was.

"Yeah, it's reel good," Eridan agreed. Then he seemed to have realized what he said as Feferi let out a giggle. "I mean really, not reel."

"You know you love my fish puns."

"They're a part a' your sparklin' personality—a' course I do."

Sollux suddenly wasn't hungry.

"See? Told you this place was the bomb!" Terezi said, as if she had been the one to suggest Rubio's in the first place.

"I'll definitely be making Eridan bring me back here in the future," Feferi added. "Great idea, Sollux!"

The glare that Eridan suddenly leveled at him could only be described as murderous. He pretended he didn't notice it, though, and continued eating like nothing had happened. It was either that or strangle Eridan with that stupid fucking scarf that he wore (even in the winter, it didn't get cold enough to warrant a _scarf_ around here—what a pretentious twat) with that stupid fucking peacoat, and he didn't think he could get away with homicide in public with three (well, two and a half) credible witnesses.

Still, the rest of lunch wasn't half bad, once he made a habit of ignoring Eridan and Karkat. Feferi asked him about his classes while Eridan's scowl deepened and Sollux answered calmly. He was almost tempted to pull faces at him when the others weren't looking since he was sitting directly across from Eridan and forced to look at his stupid face, but he resisted—barely. He did wonder, however, what he did to deserve this kind of Hell. All he did was help Karkat fix his computer, and this ended up being more of a punishment than a repayment.

"...and then there's fucking Gamzee sitting there on the couch, stoned out of his mind, and all he says is, 'Want some motherfucking Faygo?'" Karkat was saying to Terezi, but Feferi was listening, too—much to Eridan's visible annoyance. Terezi let out a mad cackle, slapping the table in glee, and even Feferi laughed. Sollux wished he'd heard the first part of this story. "I don't even fucking know where he gets that swill—they only sell that shit in Michigan, I think."

Once the girls settled down, Terezi turned in her seat to look at Eridan. With a calculated coolness, she pushed her red-tinted glasses up the bridge of her nose. "So, tell me, Eridan. What kind of guy wears a scarf in September?"

On the table, Eridan's hands bunched into fists. Sollux hadn't noticed them before, but to his surprise (although he supposed it _shouldn't_ have been a surprise, since he knew Eridan was rich), he had rings on every one of his fingers. How the Hell could he function with that much jewelry?

"I thought you said you w-were blind," Eridan growled, and Sollux was pleased to hear that, yes, he actually did stutter on his Ws.

"Legally, I am. I can see a bit. Enough to know that your scarf is blue. And you have a purple streak in your hair," she added with a frankly evil grin. "You gay or something?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "No, as a matter a' fact. I'm completely straight."

Maybe it was because of how angry he sounded and because she just liked to rag on people, or maybe it was because she was genuinely curious, but she pressed the issue. "You sure? We're a very accepting group of individuals. Well, me and Sollux, anyway. Sol's bi, you know."

"Yeah, thank you, TZ," he mumbled sarcastically, feeling his cheeks heat up all the same. "Really needed to out me to a bunch of random people." His smug mood vanished just as quickly as it had arrived.

He was out to his friends, after all—Aradia knew, and Terezi and Karkat and Gamzee (as well as his brother, but that was a huge can of worms he didn't even like to think about most days)—but he didn't tell people he'd just met that he was bisexual, especially cunts like Eridan Ampora.

"Can't say _that_ info shocks an' astounds me," the cunt in question said snidely.

"Eridan!" Feferi said sharply, reproachfully, but something inside Sollux snapped because he took his half-full cup of Dr Pepper and emptied it over Eridan Ampora's head.

There was a stunned silence for a solid three seconds, as though no one could really believe what had just happened. _Sollux_ could barely believe it, and he'd actually done it. Eridan recovered quickly though. "You motherfucker!" he spluttered, struggling to get out of the booth. His rage rendered him uncoordinated, though, and he got stuck between the seat and the table. It was enough time for Sollux to slide smoothly out of his seat, grab his backpack, and swing it onto his shoulder.

Eridan cursed at his back, but Sollux didn't care. He didn't even mind walking all the way back to campus. Seeing the mortified, shocked look on Eridan's face was well worth it.

* * *

**I ship flushed Karezi very hard. About as hard as I ship pale Gamkat. I paleship Karkat with basically everyone though. He should be the village two-wheel device for moirailing.**

**Also, Eridan is a dick right now. I kind of love it.**


	7. Act 7

**Something I keep forgetting to bring up is that, if you have a Tumblr, you can tag your reactions to this story with "coming to terms erisol" and I will find it. I'm tracking that tag!**

**So I'm sort of sick...I'm hungry but nothing wants to stay down which makes me afraid to eat anything, so yeah. Not happy about that. But it means I'll be doing a lot of writing to keep my mind off things.**

**Thanks to BlOo KiSsEs for your review to last chapter... yeah, that was it. *shoutpole***

* * *

Dave Strider scanned the occupants of the cafeteria until his gaze landed on a familiar face. Without missing a beat, he headed right for Rose's table. She didn't appear to notice him until he dropped his bag next to his intended seat, and even then, she didn't look up.

This didn't deter him, though. "Hey, Rose, you busy?"

"Extremely," she said. Upon closer inspection, he realized she had all of her knitting paraphernalia with her.

"Cool. So, listen, John got a call from Vriska during class this morning."

Rose finally looked up from her knitting needles, her left eyebrow raised. "I see. And how did our friend Mr. Egbert respond?"

Dave groaned and leaned back in his seat, running his fingers through his hair. "About as well as you'd think. He looked like someone just ran over his metaphorical puppy."

"Did he accept the call?"

He nodded. "I think so, anyway. He ducked out of class and then I didn't see him after that. It was just me and Karkat, and that was weird."

The corner of Rose's mouth twitched up into a smile. "I see." She adjusted the foot or so of knitting in her lap and set her needles, yarn and all, on the table. "So you haven't seen Mr. Egbert since he absconded from class, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Have you attempted to locate him?"

"Meh. I figure if the little bastard wanted to be found, we'd find him."

"I'm not so certain. Have you even called him?"

"Not yet."

"Perhaps you should. You remember what happened the last time Miss Serket got into his head?"

A look of disgust crossed his face. "Good point." He dug his phone out of his pocket, looped his headphones around his neck, and called John's number. As it rang, he allowed his eyes to wander over the room again, unseen through his sunglasses.

For a Monday, it was surprisingly empty. There were a few people scattered around the room—those two girls he vaguely recognized from around the campus (he thought one of them was named Aria but he could have been wrong), another girl who seemed Hell-bent on braiding her boyfriend's hair, another boy chatting on his phone—but no one he really knew besides Rose.

"Hello." John's voice was quiet, distant. Dave was immediately on alert.

"John. Hey, man. What's up?"

"Nothing."

The blond waited for a moment for John to continue, but when he realized he wasn't going to say anything else, a cold dread settled into his stomach. "What did Vris want?" he asked softly, sneaking a quick peek at Rose.

She was glancing between Dave and the more unfamiliar of the two girls he thought he sort-of recognized. She didn't show concern often, but the slope of her eyebrows hinted at it.

People often mistook Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde for siblings when they hung out together. They weren't related, but their blond hair typically confused strangers—although Dave still found it laughable since Rose bleached her hair. He'd never met an Asian, or even a half-Asian, with naturally blond hair. With her mixed heritage and his all-German ancestry, they couldn't be related any closer than perhaps half-siblings, and that was stretching it.

"She... she's transferring schools."

Dave was silent for a minute. "To where?"

"Here."

He sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. "I see. Is that all she said?"

"Basically, yeah."

Dave rubbed his forehead. "Where are you right now?"

"In front of the pool."

"O-kay," Dave said slowly, standing up. He hoisted his shoulder strap over his head and held his headphones out of the way so they didn't get messed up. Rose shot him a curious look as he said, "I'm heading over there. Just don't do anything insane for the next like ten minutes, okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay. I'll be right there." For a second he tilted his head back and clenched and unclenched his fist, trying desperately to think of something else to say. When he couldn't, he ended with, "See you in a few minutes."

"Okay."

Dave hung up and pocketed his phone. "John says he's in front of the pool."

"What happened?"

"Right." Sometimes he forgot that Rose couldn't actually read minds—there was a big difference between clairvoyants and psychics, one that she'd tried to explain and that he couldn't really be bothered to remember. "Well, apparently Vriska is going to be coming to our school now."

"Hmm." She looked down for a moment, as if studying her knitting. "He's not going to do something stupid, if that's what you're worried about. There's someone with him. But you should still go see him. He needs a friend right now."

"He needs to learn how to ask for help."

Rose shot him a withering look. "He has a way of asking for help. A subtle way, so subtle that not even he realizes it. He's one of those people who think they can handle everything that comes their way without help, not because they're overly confident in themselves, but because they don't want sympathy. He has a way. You should know that by now."

He knew that Rose was right, but he also wouldn't admit it out loud. He exhaled sharply and headed off toward the pool, wondering how right her prediction would be this time.

* * *

Around twelve-forty-five, Sollux saw Eridan's car zip past him on the way back to school. Ampora neither slowed down or otherwise acknowledged his presence, and part of him was relieved by it, but he also felt a little disappointed for reasons he didn't bother to fathom. Sure, Eridan was hot and all (in a hipster douche kind of way), but Sollux was definitely not attracted to him. That was just ridiculous.

The look on his face after Sollux had doused him with soda was priceless, though. He wondered how steep the dry-cleaning bill for _that_ incident was going to be, and if Karkat was saying anything to try to smooth things over. Probably not, though. If anything, he would really just compound the situation.

Still, he couldn't help but think that maybe he'd overreacted a bit. He probably wouldn't have lost his cool like that if he'd still been on his medication.

_I HOPE YOU'RE PROUD OF YOURSELF. AMPORA IS BEYOND THE REALM OF PISSED AND HAS STARTED PLOTTING YOUR EXECUTION. SHALL I ARRANGE FOR A CANDLELIGHT HATE DATE?_

Sollux rolled his eyes. _That a22hole 2tarted iit actually two be more 2pecific you and TZ 2tarted iit._

_HOW DID I HAVE A DICKLICKING THING TO DO WITH ANYTHING?_

_You iin2ii2ted on "repayiing" me that'2 how and then you brought ED two._

_HE WAS THE ONLY WAY WE COULD GET THERE. WHAT THE FUCK ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO, WHORE MYSELF OUT FOR A RIDE?_

_Poiint taken but ii 2tiill hold blame wiith TZ 2he diidn't have two 2ay what 2he 2aiid._

_I GUESS NOT._

_Diid you know ED wa2 a biiphobe or what_

_HOW THE FUCK SHOULD I HAVE KNOWN? I HAVE LITERALLY ONE CLASS WITH THE ASSHOLE. IT'S NOT LIKE WE COMPARE NOTES ON WHO'S METAPHORICAL PANTS WE WANT TO GET INTO. HE'S NOT A FRIEND._

Sollux rolled his eyes again. _What diid you mean by "candleliight hate date" anyway_

_I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE SMART. I WAS IMPLYING THAT THE TWO OF YOU SEEM TO LOATHE EACH OTHER SO MUCH THAT IT WOULD BE A MATCH MADE IN HELL._

He groaned and resisted the temptation to throw his phone at the ground. It would do unsurprisingly little to ease his frustration and, in the long run, not fix any of his problems to decimate his primary means of communication. Still, the urge is there. _Well riight now ii would be really okay wiith kiilliing hiim 2o iit would be a 2hort-liived relatiionshiip._

_FEFERI IS HAVING WORDS WITH HIM ABOUT HIS "PREJUDICES." I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT HE'S NOT ALWAYS THIS MUCH OF AN OBNOXIOUS ASSCLOWN._

_Oh riight that make2 everythiing all better then._

Karkat didn't have an answer for that, so Sollux put his phone away and pulled out his iPod. At least he could listen to some decent music, unlike the dubstep crap Eridan had insisted on playing on the way over.

* * *

Dave hurried to the pool as fast as he could, a bright purple BMW cruising past him as he darted to the door, but when he got there, he thought he was too late at first. He looked around the entire perimeter of the pool and saw no one, but upon closer inspection, he noted with some relief that there were no bodies floating in the pool, John-sized or otherwise. He pulled out his phone and hit the redial button on John's number.

From a point behind him, up and to his right, he heard a tinny rendition of a familiar haunting refrain. He turned, following the source of the sound, and there was John sitting high up in the bleachers with...

Well, he certainly didn't recognize her. She was probably a student, but he'd never seen her before. For one wild second, he thought that maybe this was Vriska—but no, it couldn't be her. John sat with her like one does with a comfortable stranger, not someone who'd broken his heart countless times. Besides, Dave had a mental image of Vriska, and this girl looked too sweet to be her.

John was pawing through his backpack to locate his phone, but Dave just hung up. "Hey, John!"

"Dave!" John called excitedly, sounding a good deal more chipper than the last time they'd spoken. He waved enthusiastically. "Come on up!" He turned to the girl. "This is Dave, the buddy of mine I was telling you about."

The girl smiled at him and, somehow, he couldn't help but smile back. It was a decidedly un-cool-kid thing to do, but he couldn't stop himself. She had a really nice smile.

Dave carefully picked his way up the steps and across the bleachers, settling himself on John's other side. He decided not to say anything until John did—he'd already fucked up his cool-kid persona once today, and he certainly wasn't about to do it again.

Fortunately, John had appeared to resume his chatty self. "Dave, this is Feferi. She just got here a few minutes ago."

Dave nodded coolly as Feferi smiled at him again. He was grateful, not for the first time and not for the last time, that his shades were impossible to see through. She looked like a queen and it was making him feel a little unsettled.

"Hey, John, since your friend is here now, I'm gonna go practice, okay?"

John nodded. "Sure, go ahead. We'll watch your stuff for you."

"Thanks!" Without a moment of hesitation, Feferi stood up and stripped off her shirt and skirt to reveal a black one-piece bathing suit. She unhooked a pair of goggles from her backpack, strapped them over her eyes, and darted down to the pool. As if she were some kind of mermaid, she dove right in and crossed to the other side in seconds.

"So," Dave started once he realized he'd been watching Feferi for a little longer than necessary. "How're you feeling with the whole Vriska situation?"

John chewed on his lip for a few moments before responding. "I'm not sure. Feferi was able to make me feel a little better about it, saying I probably won't be seeing her all that much, but... I don't know. Now that she's gonna actually be at school with us... she's not really gonna go away, is she?"

"Probably not, man. Maybe that's part of growing up—dealing with shit we'd rather not. Shit, we're gonna be twenty-one soon. Maybe it's time to start dealing."

John let out a groan and slumped back against the bleachers. "Growing up _sucks_."

"Preaching to the choir. I don't know how Rose handles it."

After dropping off Feferi at the pool and Karkat and Terezi in front of the cafeteria, Eridan parked and sat in his car, just seething. Where the fuck did Sollux Captor get off, humiliating him like that in front of _everyone_? What an over-dramatic little prick. He had half a mind to find him, wherever he was on the street, and give him a good old-fashioned beatdown.

But that was too blunt. A battle of wits had just begun, and if he was going to best Captor, he would have to be subtle about it.

A course of action forming itself in his head, he felt himself calming down. He'd come out on top. No one humiliated an Ampora and got away with it.

The first order of business was to go home and shower, though. His hair was getting sticky and he needed a different shirt at least.

Imagining the clarion calls of war were sounding, he pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to Cronus's apartment.

* * *

**Writing Homestuck fanfiction while listening to Homestuck music is very fun. A+, would recommend.**


	8. Act 8

**I have this thing when I write Eridan about giving a lot of unnecessary details because I love him so much and I can see every detail of what I write. You'll have to forgive me for that.**

**Thanks to BlOo KiSsEs for your review to last chapter! (Are people used to me updating every two weeks? WOULD THAT GIVE YOU MORE TIME TO REVIEW?)**

* * *

The one thing Eridan liked about being at Cronus's apartment during the day was Cronus not actually being home. Sure, the place still stank like him and his weed, and there was the other traces of Cronus's presence, but the man himself wasn't there, and that was always enough to make Eridan breathe a little easier.

His fingers itched to pull the trigger on a bottle of Febreeze he had stashed in his wardrobe but he had no doubt that his brother would come home and be pissed. Something about "messing with the vibe" or some other capricious bullshit that no doubt made sense to Cronus but no one else. Letting out a sigh of resignation, he went to his room and deposited his bag on his bed.

He gathered up his towel and a clean change of clothes (not even his jeans had escaped the fallout from the soda; his pant legs stuck to his thighs uncomfortably) and cast a considering glance around his room. The one window he had in his room had his desk wedged right underneath it. There was enough of a sill on the window to line up a number of books he'd read at least a dozen times, but there was still a solid three feet of space left. He'd been trying to decide for awhile what to do with that extra space but now, as he sat at the edge of his bed and just looked for a minute, he realized he wanted a fish tank there. He could probably keep about three or four fish in there comfortably, and they'd be safe by themselves for the weekends, providing Cronus didn't break into his room and try to poison them.

That thought gave him pause. His brother wasn't a malicious asshole, but sometimes he did things when he was stoned that he ended up regretting later on. Eridan chewed on his lip, but he'd already gotten his heart set on a couple of fish.

_I can bring them home on weekends. Get my own tank there. That way he won't kill them._ During the day he wouldn't be so worried—Cronus had his own schedule and usually got home around a half an hour before him. That wasn't a huge window of time for him to get to a mind-altering state where he destroyed things. Besides, he really hadn't displayed a tendency to go into his room anyway. It would work.

After a far shorter shower than he would have liked (only twenty minutes instead of his typical hour, although not that much of him was sticky with soda, so he didn't need to scrub his whole body), he wrapped a towel around his waist and headed straight to the mirror. He frowned at his hair (every day it seemed like he saw more of his brown roots, and yeah, they weren't really noticeable to anyone but him except where the purple streak was, but that was the _point—_he dyed his hair because he wanted to, not because anyone else thought it was cool) and dried it off as quickly as he could before haphazardly restyling it. He shimmied into his change of clothes and exited the bathroom, dropping his soda-messed apparel into his laundry basket. He considered fishing out another scarf from his wardrobe but decided against it. He didn't want to risk Captor trying to ruin another one.

He'd swapped out his black T-shirt for a purple-and-blue plaid patterned one (he didn't typically wear plaid _or_ flannel, but it was a button-down and he'd been in a rush to just style his hair and get dressed without fucking it up, so plaid button-down shirt it was) and his blue jeans for black ones, and it looked like this was as good as it was going to get. Besides, after a heart-stopping glance at his phone's clock, he realized he only had twenty minutes before his next class. It would take at least ten minutes to get to school and another five to find somewhere to park, so the odds of him being on time were slim to none.

He shoved his glasses back onto his face and headed out the door.

* * *

He was right about being late for class. Two minutes before class started, he was just pulling into a parking spot near the building his class was in—in this case, "near" being a word that meant "separated by five hundred yards of grass, two awkward rock sculptures, and one particularly garish gazebo." He knew he would never make that distance in two minutes unless he dashed, and he had his computer and his camera in his bag to worry about. Nope, no sense jostling the electronics in his mad dash to avoid futility.

The walk, however, afforded him ample time to plot his revenge on a certain bespectacled computer nerd. The first idea that came to mind was stealing Captor's laptop, but this seemed to be in poor taste considering the first act of war hadn't involved thievery and he didn't want this to escalate to nuclear proportions within hours. No, he'd save that for when he'd done something to _really_ piss him off, like slash his tires (although he doubted Sollux had the upper-body strength for that).

His second idea was finding some way to break his glasses, although, again, it seemed like trying to kill a fly with a crossbow. Besides, the retaliation for that might end up being the destruction of his _own_ glasses, and there was literally no way in Hell he could drive if he didn't have his glasses. That wouldn't do, either.

He wondered if Karkat would help him think of something, but he rejected the prospect almost immediately. Karkat was Sollux's friend, and besides, revenge wouldn't be as sweet if it had come from someone else's idea.

_Sweet._ An idea began brewing at the back of his head. He'd seen Sollux empty nearly half of that bear full of honey into his tea... He'd have to monitor closely, but he was pretty sure he didn't see anyone near it besides him. That could afford an interesting possibility for retribution.

By the time he sidled through the door to his photography class, he had the beginnings of a well-laid plan mapped out in his head. He just needed another day or two to implement it.

He slunk into the classroom a solid eight minutes after the start of class. After an apologetic wave at his professor, he took a seat near the back and pulled out his computer. He glanced up briefly to see one of his classmates giving him a puzzled look. He mouthed, "What?" at her and waited as she scribbled something on a sheet of paper, folded it over several times, and passed it to the student behind her with a curt nod in Eridan's direction.

_You Appear To Have Had A Change In Wardrobe Since I Saw You Last._

He let out an exasperated scoff and hunched over the paper. _Someone thought it wwas—_damn it, his hand shook so badly it doubled his Ws; it was bad enough he stuttered in real life, but he didn't need to do it in text, too—_funny to spill soda on me during lunch. I had to go home an change._ He folded the sheet up again and passed it back.

The response came a few minutes later, after their teacher finished collecting the projects they'd been assigned the previous Wednesday. _I Would Assume This Is The Reason For Your Tardiness?_

_You assume right. But it's no big deal since I'm plottin my revvenge—_fuck, he did it again!—_as I wwrite—_he was really going to have to work on his penmanship; this was just ridiculous—_this. It'll be cold an just._

When the reply skittered onto his desk nearly ten minutes later, he was half-asleep and only pretending to be working on their next assignment. _Excellent. I Congratulate You And Applaud Your Cunning. I Wish You The Greatest Of Fortune In Your Endeavors._

He smirked, letting out a snort of laughter that, fortunately, he had the presence of mind to muffle into his collar and pass off as a sneeze. He shoved the note into his back pocket and tried to wake himself up, but it was proving more difficult than he'd hoped.

Eridan typically had mental crashes around this time, but he also normally was able to stop at Starbucks (or the campus coffee shop, if he was pressed for time) and pick up some caffeine, so it wasn't usually this big of a problem. The last time he'd had any coffee was this morning, though, and he was ready for either a nap or another shot of espresso. Hell, he was almost desperate enough to get a bottle of soda out of the vending machines even though it was his personal policy to avoid any drinks besides water or coffee-related ones. He didn't even drink tea—not enough of a jolt for him. There was a reason he brewed his coffee with twice the typical concentration (causing Cronus to either gag or water it down with about eight creamers). No matter how much sleep he got every night, he needed caffeine around two-thirty in the afternoon.

How the Hell was he expected to function right now when he could barely keep his eyes open?

He blinked slowly, the whiteboard at the front of the room drifting in and out of focus, when out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw a familiar yellow shirt. He was immediately alert, focusing his gaze in the direction he thought he saw Captor, but either he'd simply imagined the other boy, or Sollux had absconded surprisingly quickly. Eridan nearly groaned in frustration.

However, the imagined or actual presence of the guy who was quickly becoming his arch-rival (at least in his own head) had shaken him awake. Now, at least, he had an idea of how to keep himself conscious. As he plugged his camera into his laptop and started up Photoshop, he began simmering his plan for taking revenge. By the time class was dismissed at four, he had a fully-formed plan and an execution day of Wednesday.

Sollux Captor wouldn't know what hit him. At first.

* * *

After class, the first thing he did was head for the school coffee shop and get the largest, most caffeinated drink they had. Coffee in hand, he went back to his car and parked in front of the building that Feferi's last class of the day was in to wait for her. Normally, he had to wait a half an hour or so, but his trip across campus and subsequent wait shaved twenty-five minutes off his wait time. He'd only had a few swigs of coffee when the door popped open and she slid in, tossing her backpack into the backseat. "Hey, Eridan!" Then she got a good look at his clothes and the coffee and shot him a confused look. "What the glub happened to you?"

"I had to go home an' show-wer an' change my clothes. It made me late for class so I couldn't get my coffee."

She sighed. "It wasn't that much soda, fish," she said, "fish" being a nickname for him that she only used when she was trying to be gentle. "You would have been fin—_fine_," she corrected herself, shooting a small smile at him in apology.

"It w-was in my _hair_," he snapped. He immediately regretted his harsh tone when she glanced down at her lap. "Sorry," he murmured. "I'm just a li'l annoyed is all. I'm not mad at you."

"You had it coming," Feferi chided gently, affectionately ruffling his hair.

He didn't agree with her and he didn't like people touching his hair when it had product in it, but he closed his eyes and let himself enjoy it anyway. She didn't seem to hate him; they were still friends. He briefly considered bringing up the "I like you as more than friends" conversation he'd been meaning to have with her, but decided against it at the last minute. It wasn't the right time, and he still wasn't ready to lose her for good if she didn't feel the same way. It might actually kill him.

"I guess," he mumbled in a way meant to be placating, but she saw through it immediately.

"No," she said firmly.

"No, w-what?" He started his car and put it in drive, buckling up his seat belt to avoid looking at her.

"You better not be planning some kind of revenge trick on him!"

"Hadn't ev-ven crossed my mind," he said lightly.

She crossed her arms over her chest and settled back into her seat. "Alright, whale..." She giggled for a moment and then cleared her throat, her tone becoming serious. "You remember Vriska Serket?"

Automatically, his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Did he _remember_ her? Of course he did. Hoping his face didn't betray his emotions, he nodded quickly.

"Whale, I found out from someone today that she's transferring here."

He didn't know how he managed to speak with the lump in his throat. "W-when?"

"Not sure. Soon, I think. Probably in the next bubble of weeks."

"Ah. How-w did you find out?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice neutral, but he was pretty sure his stutter was starting to betray him.

"One of her ex-boyfronds was very upset and he explained it to me."

"Not surprised. She's bad new-ws."

Fef nodded. "I think things are about to get very interesting around here."

* * *

**I still can't write fish puns to save my life, so have some shitty ones.**


	9. Act 9

**Okay, I have to warn you all, this chapter contains depressive behavior (i.e., people mentally beating themselves up). Just a trigger warning in case you don't like that kind of thing. Unfortunately, I know a bit too much about Sollux's headspace at this point and it's not a pleasant place to be.**

**I also didn't mean to berate you guys last chapter! It's just that I have 59 people following this story and only 34 reviews (total!) so it's like, where are the rest of these people?**

**Anyway, thanks to BlOo KiSsEs and crimsonkoteto for your lovely reviews to the last chapter!**

* * *

As he usually did on Mondays and Wednesdays after his Creative Writing class, Sollux went to the library to work on what little homework he'd been assigned (his Coding instructor seldom left them with work he couldn't finish before he left class and Calculus was ridiculously easy, but Chemistry tended to be a bit of a pain in the ass) so he didn't have to worry about it when he got home. His Chemistry class was only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he usually waited until the day before to do that homework anyway. He typically hid in one of the far corners, near the photography books and away from his fellow students, although sometimes he'd see Gamzee working away in another corner.

That kid always confused the holy Hell out of him. Some days, he was convinced Gamzee was an idiot, and other days, he was sure he was a certified genius. Sollux didn't see him often, but when he did, he usually had a stack of books surrounding him and ICP blaring out of his headphones. He had no idea how Gamzee was able to work with that noise in his head, but Sollux needed quiet, which was the whole point of coming to the library in the first place.

Although, he had to admit, if he had Karkat Vantas as a roommate, anything would be a relief.

He chuckled to himself and then immediately felt guilty. Their falling-out, if it could be called that, hadn't just been Karkat's fault. It took two people to let a friendship die. Sometimes he grew wistful for their inseparable middle-school and high-school days. Sure, the other boy yelled a lot and generally acted like an asshole, but he was loyal to his friends. He'd never done or said anything to intentionally hurt him—not if it was what he needed to hear. And, yeah, he'd needed to hear a lot of stuff he didn't necessarily want to ("FUCK JESUS, SOLLUX, YOU CANNOT GO TO SENIOR PROM IN JEANS!"), and Karkat had been the only one to tell him.

And now Gamzee was the one on the receiving end of Karkat's tough love, something he probably needed. Sollux had seen Gamzee in their first few months here, and he had been astonished to see how skinny the other boy had been. He thought _he_ looked malnourished—compared to Gamzee, he looked chunky. He was only two inches taller than Gamzee, but at first, he probably had about twenty pounds on the guy. Now, at least, Gamzee looked to be at a healthy weight. Once, back when Sollux and Karkat had been on friendlier terms, he'd asked about Gamzee's home life. Karkat hadn't volunteered much. "He has a brother. I don't know his name." That was literally it.

Sollux wondered a little bit, though. Common sense would tell him that a guy who'd clearly had such a hard time growing up as Gamzee would be rude or antisocial (at least, more antisocial than him, who wouldn't have gone out to lunch with four other people unless he'd been forced) or something, but he always seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He took all of Karkat's verbal abuse (mostly in affection) with a smile on his face, and it was a bit unnerving.

Finally, though, he dismissed it and decided to get to his own homework instead of wondering about some guy he barely knew.

When he'd finished his homework, he pulled his glasses off his face and rubbed his eyes. He stretched back in his seat, glancing at his phone, and saw that he'd been working for almost two hours; it was nearly five-thirty. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand and blinked slowly.

Suddenly, he squinted. He couldn't see six feet past the bridge of his nose, but he was pretty sure he saw a flash of purple past one of the shelves—and not Gamzee's favored dark, nearly-blue purple. This looked like the purple in Eridan Ampora's hair or eyes—even though he _knew_ those were contacts, they had to be—but the flash of color was too big to be either. It looked almost like a shirt, and he scrambled to put his glasses back on to see.

By the time he did so, though, whoever it was had escaped from view.

_It couldn't have been him_, Sollux realized. Eridan had been wearing a black shirt when Sollux had doused him with soda. He remembered that clearly. Still, something about the situation nagged at him until he threw his Chemistry book back into his backpack and started to weave between the rows of shelves, hunting that flash of purple he'd caught. He wasn't sure _why_ he couldn't just let it go—he just knew he couldn't.

He left the back room of the library, scanned what little of it he could see through the doorway before dismissing the two other people in the room—Gamzee, who was in black, and some girl he didn't know in olive-green—and turning around to begin his foray in the main room.

He stopped almost immediately, though. Twenty feet in front of him, his profile to Sollux, was Eridan Ampora. He'd changed his clothes, because he wore black jeans now and a purple plaid shirt that, reticent as he was to admit it, fit him well. It looked incredibly soft and for a second, he wanted to reach out and feel it for himself. He caught himself, though. It was definitely the same shirt he'd seen in the back room out of the corner of his eye, but he still wasn't sure how he'd seen the color and automatically associated it with Ampora. That was madness to the twelfth degree.

Eridan, fortunately, hadn't noticed him yet. He seemed intent on his book, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his pointed nose. Everything about his face seemed angular, thin, sharp. Even his lips were on the thin side, but not unpleasantly so. Maybe because he wore it well, carrying himself like a prince even though he was just some rich hipster kid.

He felt half of him sneer inwardly in disgust. This asshole hated him, and even though he could definitely see himself licking the back of his neck and finding out what his moans sounded like, he knew it would never happen. Besides, he wasn't a slave to his hormones, even if it _had_ been an embarrassingly long time since he'd last gotten laid. Just because he found someone infuriatingly attractive didn't mean he'd lose sleep or his head over it or act like a complete moron.

Even though that was basically what he was doing now. Sollux realized he was still standing in the doorway between the two rooms and essentially creeping on Eridan. Resisting the near-overwhelming urge to smack his forehead, he shifted his backpack, put his head down, and hurried out of the library, past Ampora, before the other boy could catch sight of him.

Apparently not fast enough, though, because he could have sworn he heard Ampora call, "Hey!" in a tone that was neither friendly nor unfriendly. He didn't stop to find out. He just charged through the automatic doors and into the dry heat of the early evening.

Once he got to the bus stop, he remembered his ear buds and felt like an even bigger idiot. They would have given him the perfect excuse to ignore Eridan. _Oh, well._ He fished them out of his backpack, plugged them into his phone, and turned on his music as he waited for the bus. He looked up every so often out of slight suspicion and curiosity, half-paranoid that he'd see that purple BMW of Eridan's coming toward him—although why Ampora would search him out was beyond him. He pushed the idea out of his head; it wouldn't make sense and he didn't pay attention to things that didn't make sense. External things, anyway.

Five minutes before the bus arrived, the blond boy from this morning swung into view. His headphones were over his ears now, his glasses still completely obscuring his eyes. He seemed absorbed in his phone, although his stride was surefooted and confident.

_Stride. Strider. Dave Strider. That_ was his name, Sollux was sure of it now. He was fairly certain he was a friend of Karkat's, but he didn't know how he knew it except that somehow, he knew this guy's name. He didn't think Aradia would necessarily be friends with him, although he supposed he could have been friends with Terezi. Either way, Dave only glanced at him to acknowledge his presence—at least, Sollux _thought_ Dave glanced at him; it was hard to tell with the sunglasses—and sat down on the opposite end of the bench.

Eridan Ampora's car never swung into sight. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or not.

* * *

Sollux was standing by the doors of the bus two stops before his own, waiting to jump off. He was paranoid about public transportation, sure that people were always watching him. It wasn't as bad when he was at school because at least then he was surrounded by college students who were wrapped up in their own little worlds, but off-campus, out in actual _public_, he was convinced they could see through him, that they could tell without even hearing him speak that he had a lisp or that they knew he had mismatched eyes. The logical part of him told him there was nothing wrong with having heterochromia or a speech impediment (and God, he hated to even think of it like that because it made him sound retarded or something) or bipolar disorder or even all three together, but the irrational, louder part of him called him a freak and wouldn't let him forget it. He was surprised he even had any friends—somehow, it wasn't obvious on the outside just how much of a mess he was on the inside, but there had to be something to give it away, something that would warn the world away from even getting involved in the wreck that was Sollux Captor's precious little life.

Terezi liked to make fun of him, though—he knew it wasn't meant in earnest, but sometimes it cut him deeper than he admitted. Aradia was nice to _everyone—_her friendship with him was nearly a given, although he wondered if they would have even gotten this close if he hadn't tutored her though French I their first semester. Karkat had ditched him for Gamzee—that had been his fault, too, but Karkat had made that final cut. Apart from them, he realized he didn't really have friends.

Maybe Eridan hated everything about him because he could sense he hated everything about himself.

Sollux visibly flinched, praying no one saw him—of course they saw him, he was standing right by the freaking door—but they were probably too preoccupied with their phones or something to notice him, his rational side reminded him quietly—but it was true. If anyone else talked to him like he talked to himself, he would hate them for eternity.

_Maybe I do need to go back on my meds._ He felt the crushing weight of a depressive low coming on, still somehow less debilitating than his manic highs. He didn't want to go back on his medication, though. He'd been doing better the last few months. Besides, as long as all the negativity in his head stayed there and he didn't hurt himself again, what difference would it make? He could handle the quiet taunting of his inner demons.

As soon as the bus doors opened at his stop, he hopped off and headed down the street toward his apartment building. He sensed before he heard footsteps behind him, and he surreptitiously glanced over his shoulder. Dave was coming up behind him, along with another, slightly-taller blond boy who could have been his brother. Dave referred to him as "bro," anyway. Their voices carried across the short distance between where he stood by the door to the building and where they were walking.

Then again, it might not have meant anything at all. He had classmates who called their friends "bro" all the time. Still, they looked so much alike that he was willing to bet it was actually the case. They both even wore sunglasses, although the taller one's sunglasses were pointed. _Anime shades_, his brain supplied helpfully.

In his apartment, he went to the fridge and unwrapped two slices of leftover pizza. His stomach rumbled, but in a way that almost seemed obligatory (_yes, I'm hungry and you know I'm hungry, but let me just remind you_) as he stuck the pizza in the microwave and nuked them for forty-five seconds. It seemed like longer than six hours since he'd eaten last.

He ended up eating his pizza in front of his computer, playing _Portal_ for the hundredth time, and by the time he finished dinner, it was time for him to go to sleep if he wanted to be up in time for class (which started at eight-thirty tomorrow). He sighed, shut down his computer, and washed and put away his plate (as well as the one from breakfast, which he'd left in the sink) as fast as he could. After that, he took out his contact lens, popped his sleeping pills, and crawled into bed. He had a feeling tomorrow was going to be a long, annoying day. Then again, Tuesdays usually were.

* * *

**So right now I'm thinking that this could be 35 chapters. That's the number I put on AO3, anyway. It could still theoretically be longer (maybe up to 50 chapters, who knows? There's still ships I haven't introduced yet and they all get together before the end!) than that, which is mind-blowing because my longest fic to date is 31 chapters.**

***Edit: Caught a typo and fixed it. I wrote the last like 700 words of this fighting sleep. I'm surprised this wasn't riddled with errors. If you catch any others, in this chapter or previous ones (or future ones!), just let me know and I'll be more than happy to fix them!***


	10. Act 10

**Hey, I think it's my longest chapter yet! I had the bulk of it written out several weeks ago so I just had to slap a beginning and an end on it, which is why I was able to update so fast.**

**Many thanks to obsessed01616, Heki564, BlOo KiSsEs, and one anon for your reviews to last chapter!**

* * *

Sollux woke slowly, a strange song penetrating his sleep. That definitely wasn't the alarm he set on his phone. Not his normal alarm, anyway. No, that Shinedown song was—

"Shit!" he yelped, sitting bolt upright. He scrambled out of bed to silence his "last chance" alarm—as in, his last chance to get to school on time. It was seven-fifty, and he had forty minutes until his first class—Web Design—began. In a flurry, he grabbed the first clean pair of jeans and shirt he could find, shoved his glasses on, struggled into his shoes and socks, grabbed his backpack, and flew out the door. He didn't bother waiting for the elevator. He simply charged down the three flights of stairs.

He dashed to the bus stop, making it just seconds before the bus pulled up to the curb. As soon as he was sitting, he allowed himself to breathe. The bus would make it to his campus stop in about twenty minutes if traffic was good, twenty-five if it sucked. It was seven-fifty-four right now, meaning he had anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes to make it to class from the bus stop. That was just barely time.

He didn't call it his "last chance" alarm for nothing. It was literally his last chance. He wouldn't even have time to see Aradia before class. Frowning, he pulled out his phone and sent her a text. _AA, ii woke up late thii2 morniing 2o iill 2ee you after cla22 iim on the bu2 riight now but ii thiink iill make iit._

The bus was ten minutes away from campus when her reply arrived. _thanks f0r letting me kn0w. i h0pe the rest 0f y0ur m0rning g0es m0re sm00thly._

* * *

Aradia didn't _hate_ text-messaging, but she preferred other methods of communication. Sollux, she knew, had hang-ups about talking on the phone, and so she didn't make a fuss when he insisted on texting her everything. Since he was on the bus right now, she understood his desire to text more so than otherwise. Public transportation was no place to have a phone conversation.

Still, Kanaya had already gone to her class and her own class didn't start until nine-thirty, so there was nothing for her to do except wait. Jade was nowhere to be found—she hadn't seen Jade since last week, although her absence wasn't exactly uncommon; the girl sometimes went right to the library in between classes and then straight home, and Aradia knew that if she wanted to be found, she would be—so Aradia decided to use her free time to make some decent headway into _A Game of Thrones_. She'd been meaning to re-read the books in their entirety (such as they were, considering there was still at least one more to be written) for awhile and even brought the first book with her, but she hadn't gotten a chance to re-read it. Not yet. But she could now.

She was so used to having at least one other person around her at all times—Damara at home, Kanaya or Sollux or both at school, sometimes Terezi when the mood struck her, or Jade when she could be dragged out of the library or from her grandfather's house—that being alone at her little table in the corner made her feel very small. That, too, was odd, considering she was six feet tall. _Small_ was not an adjective one applied to Aradia Megido. It was strange to not have someone chattering at her. True, Kanaya spoke eloquently, as did Sollux when he could be roused to talk, but she missed the sound of voices besides her own.

She kept glancing up every so often to look around the cafeteria, her restless brown eyes skimming the other students. There by the windows were two people, a boy and a girl, who he'd seen talking with Sollux yesterday. She didn't know either of them, but the girl wore a pink skirt and the boy had a streak of purple in his dark hair. Separated from them by several tables was another couple, but they weren't at a table themselves (rather, they seemed tucked into another corner by themselves). The tiny girl was perched, half on a ledge and half on the shoulders of the boy, who easily cleared six feet tall. Exposed by the sleeveless black shirt he wore, his massive biceps bulged like oversized softballs. He appeared not to notice the way the other girl played with his hair, gathering it from his bangs, combing it back with her fingers, and braiding it. Aradia blinked when she saw how long his dark hair really was. It seemed to fall halfway down his back.

The tiny girl scrunched up her face in concentration as she worked. She leaned back for a moment, putting her hand—or, rather, her sleeve—to her chin before pushing her sleeves up to almost her elbows and continuing to braid. Her sleeves, heedless of the unspoken command to stay, fell back down again almost immediately, but she ignored them.

The boy adjusted the sunglasses perched on his nose, obscuring his eyes, and murmured something to the girl. Her hands faltered as she began looking around. Aradia saw her lips form the word, "Where?" She couldn't tell how he responded, but as the girl began scanning the room with more purpose, Aradia looked down at her book. When she peeked up again about thirty seconds later, both the girl and the boy were looking at her. At least, she _thought_ he was looking at her—the sunglasses he wore made it exceedingly difficult to tell where had his gaze focused. She blushed—even with the sunglasses, he was quite classically handsome with noble-looking features and dark skin, and she had been caught staring at him and his girlfriend—but as she started to look back down again, the other girl waved excitedly, motioning for her to join them. The boy turned slightly and said something, causing the other girl to kick at his pectorals with her heels.

Aradia tossed her book into her backpack and slunk over to the pair, looking as sheepish as possible. She hoped she wasn't about to be branded a creeper. "Sorry," she said the moment she was within earshot. "I didn't—"

"Hi!" the girl said happily, ignoring her apology. She leaped off the boy's shoulders—now that she was on her own feet, Aradia could see that she really was quite short, only about four inches taller now than the boy was now, still sitting—and tugged Aradia closer. She wasn't quite sure where her hand had darted out from, since she could only see olive-green sleeve. The other girl motioned to a chair a few feet from the boy. "What's your name?" she asked, still smiling brightly.

"Um. Aradia. Look, I didn't mean—"

"Nonsense! I'm Nepeta!" she said, bounding back over to the boy and climbing onto his back again. Aradia had a feeling that just about everything she said had exclamation points. "This is Equius!" Nepeta added. The boy, heedless of her additional weight, again pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. Now that Aradia was closer to them, she could see that his sunglasses appeared to be cracked in several places, and that they kept sliding down his face due to a light sheen of perspiration. Equius flexed his fingers at her in what she interpreted to be a wave. She blushed a bit and hoped it went unnoticed.

"Hi," she said shyly, looking from Nepeta to Equius.

Nepeta resumed braiding his hair but remained quiet. Equius sighed heavily. "I apologize for my companion. She tends to be... incorrigible," he said, and suddenly, Aradia had to fight the urge to smile. He had a deep, soothing voice and a surprisingly formal way of speaking, not unlike how Kanaya spoke. It was pleasant.

"It's fine," she said instead. "I really didn't mean to stare, though."

Nepeta scoffed in a good-natured way. "But we're _purr_fectly interesting!" she said. Aradia realized that the blue hat jammed down over her untidy blond hair was actually in the likeness of a cat's face. Nepeta appeared to have a fondness for all things related to cats, considering the hat and the cat pun. "Besides, Equius doesn't have nearly enough _furr_iends!"

"I'm sure you have plenty," Aradia started soothingly, but the boy shook his head ever so slightly so as not to unseat Nepeta.

"I fear Nepeta is correct. While she is my closest friend, I have few others. I believe... I put people off."

"That seems a little hard to believe." Aradia was well-aware that she was starting to _flirt_ with Equius, but considering he'd described Nepeta as a _friend_ and a _companion_, and she'd said nothing to correct him, she felt herself relaxing a bit. _Maybe he's gay. Or maybe he wants to be more than friends with her and she doesn't realize it. Or she does and she's trying to shake his interest._ Still, she pushed those thoughts down. They were none of her business.

"They just don't understand," Nepeta sighed, but with a fond smile at the top of his head. "People think he's big and mean and scary, but he's really just a big kitten!" she added. Meanwhile, her hands never stopped moving, deft fingers twisting Equius's dark hair into one cohesive braid. She scooted back so that all of her weight was on the ledge before hopping off and standing, moving farther down his back. After a moment, she reappeared with a triumphant smile. "Done!"

Equius hadn't flinched once in the process that Aradia had seen. Whether it was a testament to Nepeta's gentleness or his pain threshold, she didn't know for sure. Either way, the braid suited him well. It brought out the edges of his face and Aradia found herself blushing again.

"So," Nepeta went on, oblivious to the silence. She hopped back onto the ledge—or, rather, climbed from Equius's arm to his shoulder before seating herself back on the ledge. Then the crossed her arms and propped them up on his head, using them to support herself. "What have you been doing today?"

"Well, I normally spend the mornings with Kanaya or Sollux—"

"Sollux Captor?" Equius asked abruptly.

"Yeah, do you know him?"

"He's in my coding class on Mondays and Wednesdays," he said.

"Who's he?!" Nepeta asked excitedly, leaning farther over Equius's head. "Your boy_furr_iend?!"

"Nepeta," Equius said warningly, but she _shoosh_ed him. She seemed genuinely interested, and not in a "I want to hook you up with my best friend" kind of way.

"No, I'm single. And nothing against him, but he's not exactly my type," she added. When Nepeta tilted her head to the side, she realized what that sounded like and waved her hands in embarrassment and frustration. "But I'm not a lesbian!" she added quickly. Nepeta tilted her head to the other side, the sphinx-like expression on her face never changing. "Not that there's anything wrong with that! My friend Kanaya is a lesbian," she said, wishing the floor would swallow her up. "You know, you can stop me from talking anytime now..."

Nepeta let out a shrill giggle. "But it's so a_mews_ing to listen to you ramble!"

Aradia groaned and completely covered her face. "I'm just trying not to come off as a total creeper."

"You're not a creeper! I think you're sweet!"

"Well, what about you?" Aradia asked in an almost challenging tone. "Are either of you dating anyone?"

Equius merely shook his head, but Nepeta said, "Nope! I'm far more interested in my own shipping, anyway!"

"Shipping?" she asked, but Equius shook his head again, with more vigor now. She couldn't be sure, but she thought he saw his eyes widen.

Nepeta ignored it, though. "Yep! People who I think would be im_paws_ibly adorable together! Like those two over there—" She motioned over Aradia's shoulder, to the two she'd seen talking to Sollux the day before. "They're friends, he likes her a lot, she's clueless! They'd be cute, but... I think they're too alike! They wouldn't be good for each other! Equius, on the other hand—"

"Nepeta," Equius said again. "Don't you have class soon?"

"Huh?" Nepeta shook back her sleeve to check her watch. "Oh, no! I gotta go!" She grabbed her backpack out of nowhere, hopped off Equius's shoulders, and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "Bye, Aradia! See you later, Equius! And if you don't get her number, I'll put you in a headlock!" she added mischievously, already scampering away.

Equius seemed to blush for a second, but he hid it by pushing his glasses up. "Again, my sincerest apologies for her. I had hoped she would behave herself, but that appears to be against her nature."

"Oh, I don't mind. I wish my friends were half as chatty as her. Sometimes I get tired of my own voice."

"She certainly speaks enough for three," he admitted with a small smile.

"She cares about you a lot."

"She and I have been through much together," he said almost wistfully. "We..." Suddenly, he seemed to remember himself. "My apologies. I don't wish to bore you."

"I don't mind at all," she said, drawing her knees up to her chest and smiling at him.

He cleared his throat. "Very well. We've known each other since we were in first grade, you see. However, we didn't know each other very well until the third grade. We were on a class trip, and the bus... flipped on its side." He faltered for a minute, and Aradia nearly told him that he didn't have to continue, but he found his voice again. "She was seated next to me and I caught her before she hit the window, thereby preventing her from sustaining serious injury. Other classmates were not so fortunate... one girl lost an eye from the broken glass, and another boy required the use of a wheelchair for the next several years. Very fortunately, no one was killed. But from that day, we have been best friends. Her parents were grateful to me, and she was always very friendly, so my parents did not object. I can hardly remember a time when I did not know her, it seems now."

"That was really brave," Aradia said, unable to keep the awed tone out of her voice.

Equius just shook his head. "It was fortune. If it had been someone else sitting next to me, I might have ended up with a different best friend. For what it's worth, I'm glad it was her, though. I have been lucky to have her in my life."

"I'd say she's been pretty lucky to have you, too."

He appeared to think it over. "I suppose so."

"Look, I have to go to class, too, but..." She scrounged in her backpack for a scrap of paper and a pen and quickly scribbled her name and number on it. She handed it to him with a grin. "I don't want her to put you in a headlock. Have a good day, Equius," she said cheerfully, and quickly bounded out of the cafeteria.

As she left, she thought she saw the shadow of a smile on his face.

* * *

**As it turns out, I cannot cat puns either. (I need to reread Nepeta and Feferi's chat logs—I'm rereading Homestuck right now and I just hit the intermission, so it will happen soon—to figure out what they replace with what.) I'm a lot more comfortable with Equius's characterization, though.**

**I knew there was some traumatic childhood event that brought Equius and Nepeta together, but it didn't come to me until tonight. Also, it left me a way to introduce another character. So yay!**


	11. Act 11

**Yay, new chapter! (I wrote this all today, so be proud of me!)**

**Many thanks to thepeopleofthecrysis, Janetissherlocked, obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, and Bear for your reviews to last chapter! I appreciate them all, and most of you reassured me that my characterizations of Nepeta and Equius were spot-on, so thanks for the feedback! (It has been brought to my attention that Equius uses horse and cow puns, but the wiki page for him says "sparingly" and I trawled through about ten pages of chat logs and didn't see one, so I may sneak one or two in if the situation arises, but the conversation in the previous chapter didn't allow it.) Also, someone guessed that the character I meant to introduce based on last chapter was Tavros but... Tav appeared in Chapter Act 1! He and Gamzee are boyfriends already. ("Get Your Smile On," the Gamtav oneshot I wrote ages ago, was kind of a precursor to this. You can take that as canon for this story, though.**

**So, anyway, it was a different character I meant, but the boy who was confined to a wheelchair was, in fact, Tavros.**

* * *

Eridan woke well before his alarm on Tuesday morning, so he allowed himself a few lazy minutes to close his eyes and not think about anything.

Naturally, the first thought that floated to the surface of his mind related to Sollux Captor, and he made a face. Now that he'd slept on it, though, the idea of revenge seemed less appealing. It was frankly childish, if he was going to admit it. Still, he almost felt honor-bound to do _something_, especially after the incident in the library.

He'd dropped Feferi off at her apartment building, he backtracked to campus for a book he'd been meaning to check out of the library. His Photography instructor had recommended it a few weeks back, so he'd hoped the clamor for it would have died down and he wouldn't be fighting nineteen other people for the same book.

As it turned out, he'd made the smart decision. He located it quickly in the back room of the library and flipped it open, pleased to see that the book had been checked back in that very day. _Perfect._ Nose already buried between the pages, his feet somehow found their way out of the back room and to the main area of the library, and he scurried to the first table he could find.

It was only ten minutes later that he saw a flash of color at the peripherals of his vision—a mustard yellow, the exact color of the shirt Sollux Captor had been wearing that day—and he looked up. Sure enough, the taller boy was slinking past him, his slim frame hunched and his head bowed low as if to avoid attracting attention. Unbidden, he heard himself call, "Hey!" although what he would have said had Sollux actually acknowledged him, he didn't know. Maybe he just wanted another look at his sworn enemy's dark brown eyes—one seemed slightly darker than the other, but he couldn't tell if it was just his imagination or an actual thing. But it didn't matter, because Captor ignored him, gliding right out of the sliding doors as though purposefully avoiding him.

There was no way he didn't see _or_ hear him. Sollux's slight had been deliberate, and he felt a muscle in his jaw twitch at the memory. He wasn't sure _why_ Sollux Captor annoyed him so much—all he knew was that he _did_. It didn't matter, he supposed. Captor had insulted his honor. That deserved retribution.

The thought spurred Eridan out of bed, and he untangled himself from his sheets. The clock on his bedside table read 6:14. Half of him wanted to flop back into bed and sleep for another hour, but the other half of him knew if he did, he wouldn't be able to get back up. Reluctantly, he stripped his sheets and tossed them in his laundry basket, making a mental note to head to the apartment's laundry room as soon as he got home from school that day. He sure as Hell didn't trust Cronus to do his laundry—he wasn't even sure when his brother even _did_ laundry.

He grabbed his towel, shampoo, and conditioner, and headed to the bathroom for an extra-long shower. His hair didn't need scrubbing but he did it anyway—he'd probably be dyeing his hair come Friday anyway, so it didn't matter how much it faded over the next four days. He'd have to tell Fef, though. She always had to help him out with the purple streak. It was a commitment to have multicolored hair, one he could have easily discarded by dyeing over the purple with black (black covered everything, as he knew with relief from that one ill-fated attempt to dye the whole right half of his hair purple), but he liked the streak. He would feel strange without it.

As soon as he dried his hair, he got dressed in dark blue jeans (that hugged his ass rather nicely, if he said so himself), a purple T-shirt, and a black button-down shirt that he left half-unbuttoned, and went back to the bathroom to style it, noting that he still hadn't heard sounds from Cronus's room. That didn't exactly surprise him, since his brother was usually rolling out of bed as he was leaving for school, but it still unnerved him to _feel_ alone but not actually _be_ alone.

He made a face in the mirror as he set to work with the gel. _Alone._ He'd dreamed last night, but he couldn't remember of what. He had the feeling that _alone_ had some part of it, so he mentally picked at it until nearly seven-thirty, when he went to the kitchen for his coffee. He still couldn't remember his dream, but the scalding-hot coffee shoved all other thoughts out of his head as he threw it back. He drained the first cup easily and poured most of the rest into a purple Thermos that he would most likely finish on his way to school. He eyeballed an apple in consideration and then dismissed it. He wasn't hungry first thing in the morning, and whatever emptiness he had in his stomach was filled by coffee.

He packed up his backpack, snatched his keys from the coffee table in the living room, and waved a hasty goodbye to his brother, who'd just emerged from his room with a bleary look on his face and a cigarette already in his mouth.

As always, he picked up Feferi on the way to school. She took a swig of his coffee and almost gagged. _"Cod,_ Eridan! How can you _drink_ that stuff?"

"Easy. Watch," he said calmly, lifting the Thermos to his lips. Used to the taste and no longer burned by the heat, he swallowed a mouthful and grinned. "It's nectar a' the 'cods,'" he quipped, using her own puns against her.

She pulled a face and shook her head. "Sometimes I just don't _net_ you."

Eridan shook his head, too. "That was a bad one, Fef."

She giggled. "Yeah, it was, wasn't it?"

It was almost eight when they arrived at school, and over an hour until Eridan's first class started. Feferi's Sociology class began at eight-thirty, but she always kept him company in the cafeteria until she had to leave. This morning, however, he knew he wasn't very talkative.

He was distracted, making careful note of the brand of honey the school bought and keeping an eye out for Sollux Captor. The dark-skinned girl he'd been sitting with the day before was by herself today. He watched as she pulled out her phone to answer a text message and he wondered if it was from Sollux and where he was this morning. He'd always had the vague idea that he was here every morning, but today he was nowhere in sight.

"So, _water _we doing this weekend?" Feferi asked, grinning as she shook him out of his reverie.

"Oh. Um." He'd been taken by surprise, and for a second, his thoughts scattered like minnows. He collected himself, remembering what he'd intended to tell her. "This mess," he said, gesturing to his hair, "needs fixin'. I got roots comin' in that won't quit. I figure that's a job for Friday night an' you can decide for Saturday."

"_Whale_, we're going home this weekend, right? My parents missed me last weekend," she added plaintively.

Eridan nodded. "Yeah. We can leave after school on Friday."

"We should try to go to the beach on Saturday one last time, before it gets too cold," she said almost dreamily.

"I'll go with you, but I'm definitely _not_ swimmin'." To his mind, it was already too cold for that, but she had a higher tolerance for temperature variations in the water. She would probably go swimming in December if the air wasn't too cold when she got out of the water.

She stuck her tongue out at him and turned to her phone, answering a text that had just come in.

Eridan glanced back at the girl that had been with Sollux. She'd pulled out a book that he couldn't read the title of from here, but she kept peeking up over the top of it to look around the room. Within two minutes, she was putting her book away and crossing the room to join two people he hadn't noticed before.

Where the Hell was Sollux? Eridan wondered if he was avoiding the building purposefully, knowing he'd be around. _Smart move_, he acknowledged, but it didn't help him. He wanted to actually _see_ that scum, but apparently, it wasn't to happen this morning. One by one, people got up from their tables and drifted out of the cafeteria as their classes were set to begin, including Feferi, Sollux's friend, and the girl she was talking to. Only the boy remained, a tall and well-muscled boy Eridan didn't recognize.

He groaned and leaned back in his seat. There was nothing else he could do right now. He pulled out his phone and started playing a game.

* * *

After his Calculus class was let out ten minutes before their scheduled ten-thirty dismissal time, Eridan headed back to the cafeteria. His Tuesday and Thursday classes had been scheduled so he only had one class in the morning, but his class after lunch started at noon. It was the price he paid for an easy morning. He was grateful to have an hour and a half off for lunch.

He was in the middle of sending a text message to Fef as he strode down the sidewalk when he felt someone shoulder-check him going the other way. He immediately whipped around to issue a scathing remark when he saw who it was and the words died in his throat.

_Oh._ Even though they only locked eyes for a second or two, it was enough. It was Sollux Captor, but looking decidedly different from the day before in one crucial detail: his left eye, the one Eridan had thought to be a shade or two darker brown than the other, was _blue_. He must have been wearing a contact lens the day before to hide it, but now... He felt his gaze move from one eye to the other, confirming what was obvious a huge difference in color. Somehow, though, those mismatched eyes seemed to fit him. They looked natural somehow.

Sollux's eyes widened as he noted where Eridan was looking and he quickly turned away. "Fuck," he heard the taller boy mutter as he hurried away.

For a long time, Eridan stared after Sollux, watching him retreat. He couldn't say what compelled him to look long after what could have been considered normal, but he felt some tug that tried to lead him wherever Captor was heading.

_The thirst for revenge_, he told himself, and he headed back to the cafeteria for lunch. The sooner he struck back, the better. That way, Sollux would be able to plan his own retaliation, and then... what? He _expected_ that Sollux would respond in kind to Eridan's opening salvo. It was what he would do if their roles were reversed. But what if he didn't? What if Captor just let it go or ignored it?

That thought bothered him, too. He sincerely hoped he'd picked a worthy adversary in Sollux Captor. Judging by his little stunt from yesterday, he assumed he had the fortitude to continue their contest of wits, but... perhaps not. He knew he'd be disappointed if his retribution didn't earn a response of its own.

_just ran into sol. dude's got one blue eye an one brown eye. _He realized as soon as he sent the text to Feferi that he'd assigned Captor a nickname from his collective. Feferi was "Fef," Cronus was "Cro," Karkat was "Kar," and now, apparently, Sollux was "Sol." He scoffed to himself. Hell, he might as well just start calling Terezi "Ter" while he was at it. That's where this slippery slope was headed if he maintained this behavior.

_And why do I care? I have a fishy feeling you're obsessed with him._

Eridan groaned. She didn't understand! Sollux had injured his pride! _all a your feelins are fishy. an i am not obsessed with him!_

_You sure? 38D_

_yes i am sure! cod why are you actin so weird?_ It wasn't like him to slip a fish pun in, but he didn't like where this conversation was heading and figured it was a good way to distract her. He was beginning to wish he hadn't even brought it up.

_I'm just joking, carp down. 38)_

He didn't like the way that smiley mocked him. It hinted that she thought he really _was_ obsessed with Sollux Captor, and that was just ridiculous.

Another text from Feferi came in. _But seriously, I do think you hurt his feelings with your comment. 38(_

Eridan gritted his teeth. _well even if i had a mind to apologize, which i don't, he probably wouldn't listen now_

_Maybe you should, though._

He was definitely not about to apologize. Amporas _never_ apologized. He didn't answer Fef, but she was used to his moods. It wouldn't faze her.

He was halfway done with his lunch when he noted with some disinterest that a girl with bleached-blond hair and black-painted lips was looking around the cafeteria, presumably for a place to sit. She looked around and located the emptiest table (besides his—he was sure to fix a glower on his face to warn off even the most friendly of people) that had one girl at it, one with bobbed black hair and a floor-length skirt.

He scowled at his pizza and continued to... well, not sulk, because Amporas didn't sulk, either. He glared at everyone and everything, though. He couldn't rest until his pride had been avenged. Captor would pay tomorrow morning.

* * *

**Someone seems to be intimately familiar with a river in Egypt.**

**Also, yes, Sollux was so rushed this morning that he forgot to put in his brown contact lens. *nod nod* That was intentional on my part. (THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS.)**


	12. Act 12

**Here, have new act thank to be reading.**

**Um. This wasn't supposed to be done today but I wrote the first 400 words during class and then the other 2200(!) followed easily and... I cannot believe it. So Eridan's little stunt will be revealed in the act after next.**

**Many thanks to Dreamingfishy, obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, YaoiOverlord, thepeopleofthecrysis, and Heki564 for your reviews to last chapter! Each and every one of them is appreciated!**

* * *

He was an _idiot_. How could he have been in such a damned rush?

He knew the answer, though. If he was going to be honest, he had barely made it to the bus on time as it was. He needed to set his last-chance alarm two minutes earlier. Still, Sollux berated himself for hurrying like that. Why had he even _needed_ that alarm? Why hadn't he woken up earlier?

He remembered, however vaguely, waking up from a dream in the middle of the night. He never dreamed, a side effect of the sleeping pills, but he had last night for reasons he couldn't fathom. He tried to recall what it had been about, but falling asleep again and the intervening hours had driven the dream past remembrance. He just knew with a cold certainty that he _had_ dreamed, and he'd gone back to sleep, and he'd woken again, too late to realize what he was forgetting.

And now Eridan Ampora had seen his stupid blue eye.

Ampora's face had been... stunned. Neither of them had realized right away who they'd smacked into. It wasn't until they'd wheeled around, coming face-to-face, that Sollux even realized it was someone he knew. He'd seen the way Eridan had spun around, some barb on his lips, and just the same, he'd seen the words freeze in his throat and how his eyes moved from one side of his face to the other. For the briefest of moments, Sollux wondered what the Hell Ampora was looking at like that.

And then he remembered. It was painfully obvious from the expression on his face what he was looking at. _Awed_ wasn't the right word, but it was the first word that came to mind. Eridan had seen his freakishly mismatched his eyes were, and Sollux muttered, "Fuck," spinning back around and hurrying to his Political Science class. He half-expected Eridan to call after him, just like the evening before in the library, but Ampora never raised his voice to hail him. When Sollux looked back just before ducking into the building his class was in, Eridan was still standing there, looking at him. A shiver ran down Sollux's spine.

In class, suddenly painfully self-conscious of the colors of his eyes, he kept his head down and his mouth shut. He had half a mind to head home during lunch to retrieve the contact lens, but he only had an hour between Political Science and Chemistry and he didn't want to cut it too close. The buses only ran every fifteen minutes right now, leaving him ten extra minutes, if he was lucky, to make it to class on time. He was stuck.

It wasn't easy to hide his six-foot-two frame behind five-foot-ten Jake English in front of him, but he made it happen, slouching and propping his feet up on the wire basket beneath the other boy's desk. He hoped it would be enough to keep his teacher from picking him to answer a question, thereby keeping all eyes off him, but he knew his instructor also liked to call on random people, just minding their own business. It would be a cold game of Russian Roulette, but Sollux was pretty good at remaining unseen, even at his height.

As class dragged on, he half-paid attention, the other half focusing on shitty doodles he roughed out in the margins of his notebook. He wasn't really artistic, wasn't good at drawing or writing or anything—the only reason he had that Creative Writing class this semester was for a mandatory elective requirement—but it soothed him to draw, at least a little.

He sketched out a chessboard with nine tiles, and—he grinned to himself—two kings locked in an eternal stalemate. Next to it, he started drawing a boy with glasses and a hammer smacking the shit out of a bunch of little imps. By the time he started in on the finer details, class was ending and he had gone mercifully unnoticed.

Now all he had to do was avoid running into Ampora again. This time, he would watch where he was going. He tossed his notebook and textbook into his backpack and slunk out of the classroom, eyes lowered to his shoes.

He wished he had prescription sunglasses so he didn't have to worry about people seeing this stupid eye thing. He could forgo a contact lens and just toss the shades on whenever he felt like it. It would be a lot faster than contacts, too.

Sollux kept his head down but peered up as he walked, keeping his eyes moving across the sidewalk, scanning anxiously for Ampora or anyone else he didn't want seeing him like this. He irrationally felt that all eyes were on him, but as he looked more closely, he saw that hardly anyone spared him a glance. It was a relief, to be sure.

He was at the door of the cafeteria building when he saw Eridan heading out. _Shit! That asshole is everywhere!_ He spun around and searched for a place to hide. All he could see that was within sprinting distance in the time it would take Eridan to reach the door was the outside wall of the building. The doors were set about ten feet out from the rest of the building in their own enclave, leaving enough of a wall to hide him until he was well out of Eridan's peripherals. Seeing no other alternative, he dashed behind the building and pressed his back to the wall.

_This is stupid_, he realized as he stood there. He was twenty years hold and _hiding_ from _Eridan goddamn Ampora_ because of his eyes. He felt like a moron, but he wanted to avoid harassment. Apparently, this was the way to do it.

He wasn't stupid enough to think that Eridan wasn't angry at him. He knew the little hipster douche was pissed-off. Sollux just didn't know how pissed he was. He didn't doubt, though, that Ampora had the ability to make his life a living Hell.

Considering he was hiding from Eridan behind a fucking wall, he'd already started to make his life a living Hell, actually.

Once he was sure Eridan had passed without noticing him, he breathed a sigh of relief, hopped over the knee-high concrete barrier he'd vaulted over earlier, and headed inside. To his relief, Aradia was already there, but she was sitting with someone he didn't recognize and someone he did. Sollux wondered where he knew the guy from when Aradia caught sight of him, waved excitedly, and quickly got up and dashed over to him. He gave a half-hearted wave in return as the other boy and girl turned around, and he made a big show of brushing his bangs away from his left eye to hide the blue.

"Hey, Sollux! I missed you this morning!" she said brightly, giving him a tight hug. She stepped back as he lowered his hand and she inhaled sharply, covering her mouth with her hands, but he could see a smile on her face. "Sollux, your contact is gone!" she breathed, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah. It was an accident," he muttered, not caring about his lisp anymore. "I got up so late that I forgot all about it."

"Oh." She seemed disappointed. "So it wasn't intentional?"

He shook his head. "Of course not. I look like a freak, and Eridan Ampora saw it, too."

"Who?"

"Oh. Right. I forgot I didn't tell you."

"Tell me what?"

Sollux sighed and sat down on a bench near the stairs. Aradia glanced back at the two others she'd been sitting with (both of whom were looking confused), held up a finger as if to say _hold on a minute_, and sat down next to him. "Remember how KK decided to take me to lunch yesterday?"

"Yes..." she said slowly.

"Well, his lab buddy Eridan Ampora came with us because he has a car. TZ and Eridan's friend Fef came with us, too."

"Terezi came?"

"Yeah. She pretty much invited herself, but KK didn't tell her no. So Eridan bitched the whole way pretty much and then he bitched some more when we got to the restaurant and he bitched the whole time we were eating, and then TZ opened her mouth and made some insinuation that he's gay and ED basically lost his shit insisting that he's _not_, and TZ said that me and her are a 'very accepting' couple of people and added that _I'm_ bi, and ED made this crack that it didn't surprise him, and I... Well, I think I snapped 'cause I dumped my cup of Dr Pepper on his head and now I think he's out to get me."

By the time he finished his story, Aradia had buried her face in her hands and begun rocking back and forth in her seat. Sollux wasn't sure what to make of this, but suddenly, she let out a shrill giggle and her hands dropped, revealing the huge grin on her face. "I'm sorry, Sollux, that's hysterical. I never would have guessed you had it in you to—"

"Retaliate against a blatant insult?"

"Retaliate at all. I'm proud of you for standing up for yourself! The delivery could use a little work, but good overall message."

Sollux laughed in spite of himself and ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, I've made an enemy out of Eridan Ampora, so we'll see how well that ends."

"If he's going to insult your sexuality, he probably _is_ an idiot. And so far in the closet, even Dean Winchester's like, 'Damn!'"

He chuckled again. Aradia always knew what to say to make him feel better, at least for a few minutes. It was a relief to not worry about _something_. "So," he said, figuring it was past time to ask, "who are those two you're hanging out with in there? I think I know the guy, but I don't know from where."

"Oh." She blushed suddenly, hiding her face behind her hair until the dull flush receded. "Um. She's Nepeta, and he's Equius Zahhak. He says he's in your Coding class, actually."

He nodded. That did sound right. Most people in that class kept to themselves, though. It wasn't a really lecture-based course. "And?"

She blushed again. "And... um... he's really cute."

He knew that wasn't the whole story. "_And_?"

"What do you want me to say? I think he likes me, and I think I like him!"

"You never mentioned him before. How did you meet?" he asked patiently.

She ducked her head and mumbled something he couldn't quite make out.

"Huh?"

"I _said_, Nepeta caught me staring at them."

"You were staring at them?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah. It was this morning, right after you said you were running late, and I started reading _Game of Thrones_ but I kept looking around and I saw them and she was braiding his hair so I was watching and they saw me and... Well, Nepeta invited me over and we started talking and then _she_ left and it was just me and Equius and Nepeta had been hinting that Equius liked me or that we'd be good for each other or _something_, I'm not really sure, it just all happened so fast and anyway I gave him my number and I'm pretty sure me and Equius like each other."

"Is he cool?" Sollux didn't know the guy, after all. Coding class offered very little time for socialization, Terezi be damned.

"Yeah, he's really nice and really strong and... you should come meet them!"

"Uh." Sollux pointed to his eye. "Not really feeling all that social right now, AA."

"They won't care, I promise. Nepeta is really sweet and Equius seems too polite to say anything mean anyway. Come on, I'm sure you'll like them!"

Sollux glanced at the tiny blond girl and the huge dark boy. A cold weight settled into his stomach. "Okay," he mumbled, standing and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Let's go."

He followed her to where Equius and Nepeta were sitting. Equius looked a lot more intimidating from the front, considering he'd really only ever seen the boy's back in class. Nepeta looked like a cat, though—she had a tiny, pointed face and button nose, and she had an air of mischief about her. This was only amplified as she sprang gracefully from the table she'd been sitting on, next to Equius, and grabbed Aradia and Sollux by the wrists. "Hi, Sollux!" she said brightly. "I'm Nepeta! Did Aradia tell you about us?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, allowing himself to be steered toward the table with the other boy. Now that they were standing next to each other, he fully realized just how short she actually was. In fact, it was kind of funny because he, Aradia, and Equius were all at least six feet tall and she looked to barely clear five feet. Karkat would _love_ hanging out with her.

"Good afternoon," Equius said. Sollux realized he'd never heard his voice before.

"Hey."

Nepeta shoved him into a chair next to Aradia and she scampered to the other side, using Equius to climb onto the table where she settled in the middle, sitting cross-legged. The three of them resumed their conversation and he quickly excused himself to get lunch, leaving his backpack next to Aradia as an unspoken promise to return. Nepeta's hyperactivity was giving him heart palpitations.

He took extra time to pick out what he wanted for lunch to postpone going back to Aradia and, more specifically, her new friends. It wasn't that he didn't _like_ them—it was just that his blue eye, exposed to the world, was making him increasingly self-conscious and he didn't relish the thought of keeping his eyes down for the rest of the day. It was a pain in the ass.

Finally, though, once he had his burger and fries on his tray, he couldn't postpone it any longer. He slunk back to the table, just in time for a flash of fuchsia to overtake him.

"Sollux! Can I _glub_ at you for a second?" Feferi asked, rushing over to him from Lord knew where.

"Uh, yeah," he said, looking nervously down at his plate.

"Great!" He chanced half a glance up, and she was looking at his eyes. There was no surprise on her face, though. It was as if she was confirming what she already knew. "Look," she started, "I'm so sorry about what happened yesterday. Eridan was _wave_ out of line. He's my best _frond_ and I know how he can get some_tines_, and I _codn't_ make any excuses for him, but I just wanted you to know that I think he might be planning some_fin_ to get back at you. I'm gonna _glub_ at him about it, too, but again, I am _reel_ly sorry about every_fin_."

"I'm not mad at you or anything," Sollux started, and Feferi nodded like she already knew.

"I know, I know, but try not to be mad at him, either. He's not a bad guy, _reel_ly! He just takes some... _netting_ used to."

Sollux felt a bit bowled over by the fish puns, but he nodded. "Yeah. I'll try. If he fucks with me, though, I'm going to hit back."

Feferi bit her lip. "Okay. I'll try to _glub_ some sense into him," she said, and then hurried away as quickly as she'd come.

Nepeta let out a high-pitched giggle, and Sollux turned his head to see that she had stuffed her sleeves into her mouth to muffle the sound. Her mischievous look had only deepened. "What?" he asked, shooting her what he hoped was a cold glare.

She just shook her head and giggled again.

* * *

**Someone posted a masterpost of Feferi fish puns on Tumblr and I see her using them a lot more when she gets nervous, hence the waterlogged rambling.**

**Aaaaaand Jake English made an appearance. I wasn't sure about adding the alpha kids into this but I have a few of the Beforus trolls so I figured, why not? (Also Dirk.)**

**Aaaaaand Nepeta's gigglefit is because she already knows what's going to happen. She is the shipping queen.**

***Edit: OMFG THANKS TO BEAR FOR POINTING OUT THAT ARADIA ACCIDENTALLY CALLS SOLLUX "ERIDAN" I FIXED IT THOUGH OMFG* *hides head in shame*  
**


	13. IntermissionAct 13

**I have always wanted to write an intermission. YESSSS.**

**Many thanks to theindigoprince, thepeopleofthecrysis, Hi miss Alice, obsessed01616, and Bear for your reviews to last chapter (especially Bear who reviewed right away and caught a really embarrassing mistake on my part). THANKS GUISE.**

* * *

_**INTERMISSION**_

_**Several hours before (two hours and fifteen minutes, to be precise)**_

It wasn't uncommon to find the cafeteria filled with people, especially around lunchtime. Rose had long since accepted this fact and now only wanted to find a nice, empty table so she could sit down, eat a sandwich, and knit. She didn't think it was too much to ask, but apparently whatever powers held sway over the workings of the universe begged to differ. As she looked around, she noted with a minor wave of annoyance that not a single table remained unoccupied. There were quite a few that had one person only, but none of them looked very friendly—especially that boy in the corner with the thick hipster glasses and angry scowl. She wondered what he had stuck in his craw before she hazarded another look around the room.

There was one girl with her head down. Well, if anything, they didn't have to make conversation. She didn't look to be in a very chatty mood anyway, which suited Rose just fine. She wasn't someone who felt the need to fill every silence with meaningless polite chatter. As long as this girl was okay with the clacking of knitting needles, they would make for quite an amiable pair.

"S'cuse me," she said as politely as she could.

The girl lifted her head, her bobbed dark hair skimming the sides of her ears. Her lips had been painted jade green and her eyeliner, while not thick, was noticeable, lending her a Goth-equse appearance, but Rose somehow sensed that she would bristle at being labeled as such. When the girl locked eyes with her, a small, tentative smile crossed her face. "Good morning," she replied; her voice sounded almost impossibly sweet and her inflection hinted at a surprising intelligence.

"Mind if I sit here? There's no empty tables," Rose explained, not allowing herself to become unhinged by this other girl's pretty face.

"That would be agreeable."

Rose got the impression that this girl was no stranger to formality. "Thanks. I'm Rose."

"I'm Kanaya. It's a great pleasure to meet you, Rose."

Rose couldn't help smiling in return as she set down her backpack. It was a rather foreign feeling—the smiling, that is. She hadn't smiled honestly and sincerely in quite some time. Whenever she smiled, it tended to be mockingly or a half-smile. It wasn't so bad to genuinely smile again, though. "I'll be right back. I need to get some lunch."

"I'll be waiting," Kanaya almost sang as Rose headed toward the chow line.

As she gathered her food, she wondered why Kanaya had been sitting with her head down in the first place. Would Kanaya be agreeable to talking about it? Rose's inner psychologist couldn't help but be curious. Maybe this could be a very interesting lunch after all.

When Rose returned to Kanaya's table, she saw that the other girl had procured a cup of what looked like either coffee or tea—she couldn't tell which. Rose set her tray down and took her seat across from the dark-haired girl. "So, tell me, Kanaya. What sort of emotional upheavals have you experienced recently?"

_**END INTERMISSION.**_

* * *

_**ACT 13**_

_**Several hours later (two and a half, to be precise)**_

Eridan didn't really _like_ having a class that started at noon, honestly. More often than not, his classmates would bring in their lunches and eat in front of everyone, and while he wasn't hungry considering he'd eaten in the cafeteria, it was annoying when one of them gave an answer and they had food in their mouths. It was enough to make him contemplate jumping out the second-story window.

He resisted, just barely, by ignoring them all. He had other things on his plate right now, like his revenge stunt with Captor and this business with Vriska Serket's impending return to his life. Last night and this morning had driven the latter from his mind, but after he had his plan fully formed, he mentally set it aside and remembered that the huge spider-bitch was planning on coming to _his_ school. Even worse, he didn't know when that was actually going to happen. This, he supposed, was probably one of her psychological tactics.

Two and a half years. That was how long it had been since he'd seen her last. He'd barely even thought about her for the last eighteen months, but Fef had told him that one of Vriska's ex-boyfriends was traumatized by the revelation that she'd be coming here, so apparently she still wielded the same manipulative power she always had. He didn't like to think about the two months they'd dated (if that was what you'd call it—he wasn't sure that it did, since the only places they'd gone together were his bedroom or her basement). It had been a very dark time in his life. Not even Feferi, who'd been his best friend for seven years now, knew about whatever the sum of their relationship had been. Vriska had wanted it kept secret. "I want to keep you aaaaaaaall to myself," she'd said in that sing-song way she had, stretching her words and adding extra vowels.

She'd had him all to herself for this long, though. Nearly three years after that short time they'd been together, he still hadn't been able to break the dry spell she'd somehow left in his life. It was like she'd cursed him when she left. She had been his first, and to date, she'd been the only one. It was embarrassing—he hadn't even dated anyone else. It was embarrassing and unconscionable and it was something he'd take to the grave if he could help it. Feferi could never know.

And now Vriska was coming back into his life. He knew she had at least one other ex here, probably more, so what could her logic possibly be? Maybe the spider-bitch wanted to see if she could trap anyone else in her web of seduction. Eridan shuddered at the prospect. He would never go back to her, no matter how much he'd missed her at first. The whole thing had been a huge mistake.

He was startled out of his musings as around him, his classmates got to their feet and started shuffling out the door. He put away his laptop and hurried out as well. He only had a half an hour between this class and Art History, and he felt himself crashing. He needed coffee, or else he'd never survive the day.

The line at the school coffee shop was mercifully short, but he had to deal with Roxy behind the register today. Half the time, he would swear she was drunk. Her speech always seemed to be slurred, but somehow, the other baristas were able to interpret what she was saying accurately. It was impressive until she handed him back his credit card with a flirty, "Wonk-wonk," and an exaggerated wink. He took his card and slunk away, feeling vaguely creeped-out.

Behind the counter, Jane snorted with laughter.

Coffee in hand (courtesy of Jane, because Roxy was wisely never allowed to prepare orders), he headed off to his next class, hoping there would be something of interest to be discussed. He needed to keep his mind off Vriska Serket.

* * *

He got his wish: his Art History class was interesting enough to keep him focused on the work, and Jane had slipped an extra shot of espresso into his coffee to keep him awake. If she'd been there, he probably would have kissed her. It was _exactly_ what he needed.

The next time he went in there, he decided he was going to use cash so he could leave her a tip.

After class, he dropped Feferi off at her apartment building. He'd been forced to reassure her several times that he had no intention of retaliating against Sollux Captor before she would get out of the car, but once she did, he drove to the nearest grocery store to pick up the few things he would need for his harmless little prank. Items in hand, he went back home and set about preparing for the next day. If anything, it would be an awesome morning.

* * *

Sollux didn't run into Eridan for the rest of the day, much to his relief. He was pretty sure the other boy would make fun of him, and he didn't know if he would punch him out or have a mental collapse in the corner. Both options seemed appealing, but he fortunately didn't have to make that choice. It still didn't stop him from thinking about Eridan and all the shit he could potentially pull, but by three-thirty, he was on the bus back home.

Back in his apartment, he dropped his backpack off in his bedroom and went to his living room/dining room. He knew he had to get his mind off Eridan—worrying about him was going to give him a stress ulcer if he wasn't careful—so he tried to immerse himself in _Assassin's Creed_ until he finally gave up. It was pointless. He couldn't get Ampora out of his head.

He groaned and sent a text to Aradia. _AA what2 happeniing?_ Without waiting for an answer, he sent another text to Terezi, hoping at least one of them would answer. _hey TZ what2 up?_ He was still a little annoyed at her for what had happened yesterday, but she wasn't the only one at fault. Besides, she was one of the few friends he had left.

He only had to wait a minute or two. Aradia's response came in first. _n0t much. class has been uneventful but equius has been in c0ntact_

_that2 good new2 riight?_

Terezi's answer came next. _H3Y SOLLUX. 1V3 B33N DO1NG 4BSOLUT3LY NOTH1NG 3XC3PT T3XT1NG P3OPL3 4LL D4Y._

_liike who?_

Aradia's reply arrived while he was sending his text to Terezi. _yes it's a g00d thing. i think. it's been a bit strange, t0 be h0nest. i think there's s0mething he's n0t telling me_

_2omethiing bad?_

_MOSTLY T4VROS 4ND K4RK4T :]_

_are you actually gettiing along wiith hiim?_ This was not sufficient for a distraction. Now if Mituna were here... Sollux winced. He loved Mituna, he really did. Even though they were all but identical (the only difference between them being that both of Mituna's eyes were brown), no one would ever mistake one for the other. Sollux's twin was almost always grinning, carefree, and untroubled, something Sollux couldn't help but envy him. He'd gotten saddled with the debilitating disorders and social anxiety (and a deep-seated insecurity about his heterochromia) and Mituna had some sorcery-caused ability to make friends with damn near anyone. Social situations were his thing. He even had a girlfriend now, he said (not that Sollux had ever met her, but she was apparently "super rad, man!"). Still, the constant _friendliness_ was enough to put Sollux off. Mituna had gone to a college upstate on a science scholarship, so Sollux didn't have to see him all the time, but they each went home one weekend a month and it was, more often than not, almost more than he could stand.

At least he would be so preoccupied with Mituna that he wouldn't even have time to think about Eridan Ampora.

He could do anything right now, and here he was obsessing about some guy who hated him. His life had gotten pretty badly fucked if he was at this point. He would have even been grateful for the distraction of homework, but he was already caught up on that. Even his Chemistry assignment today had been easy enough to complete. It was _done_.

He rubbed his eyes. He hadn't bothered putting the brown contact lens back in once he got home; he wasn't planning on going out tonight, so it didn't make a difference. Half of him wanted to go out and do something, but he didn't have an actual idea, so he knew it would be a stupid endeavor. The other half of him wanted to talk to Aradia again about Eridan, but he knew it would make him feel like an idiot. He didn't need reminding that the hipster douche-wagon basically ran his life now. Even if Eridan _was_ kind of hot, in that annoying "better than you" hipster douche-wagon way. He'd never admit it out loud, but he was even a little attracted to him, no matter how stupid it was, considering Eridan was a bi- and homophobic bastard. (Feferi had insisted that he really wasn't like that, but Sollux wasn't sure.)

He switched over the auxiliary feeds to his television and started channel-surfing. Maybe there would be something good on.

* * *

**You'd think this would be an even longer chapter since I have an intermission AND an act, but...it didn't quite pan out that way. Not much happened in the chapter, but I didn't want to gloss over anything.**

**Poor Eridan, so embarrassed he slept with that huge spider8itch...**


	14. Act 14

**Pranking time. You can all shut up now :P**

**Many thanks to obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, and Heki564 for your reviews to the last chapter!**

* * *

Eridan woke up before his alarm again and took the fastest shower he'd ever had in his life. He only slowed down for coffee and to make absolutely sure he had everything he needed for this morning—the bottle of honey he'd modified was in his bag, along with his textbooks, laptop, and camera. On second thought, he stuck the bottle in a plastic bag to ensure it didn't ooze on any of his electronics. It would figure if karma saw fit to punish him early.

He texted Feferi and told her to be ready to go early, too. It was imperative that they arrive before Sollux. If they didn't, there was no way his plan would work and he'd have to postpone it until next Monday, and _that_ was unacceptable. He had to strike while the iron was still hot.

He knew better than to explain to her _why_ he wanted to be early. She'd already tried to tell him to let it go, that he and Sollux were even (he'd made his snide comment and Sollux had retaliated), but he still didn't like it. Captor had _humiliated_ him. He couldn't let it go, couldn't let it rest. He _wouldn't_, either.

But he'd assured her that he'd behave. He felt a bit guilty about lying to her, but it wasn't hurting her and she'd be over it soon enough anyway. He hadn't been planning on telling her he liked her anytime in the immediate future, either—what was the big deal with waiting a few more months? It wasn't like she'd expressed a romantic interest in anyone else. He might worry then, but _until_ then, he would keep his silence until a more opportune time.

However, he realized that his biggest issue in implementing his master plan was actually separating himself from her. She would no doubt not let him leave the table if she suspected he was going to do something malicious, or tip off Sollux and ruin the whole thing. If she were to leave the room for some reason, though... His mind began running through scenarios of how he could distract her or get her to leave.

He needn't have worried, though. Almost immediately after sitting down at their table, Feferi stood right back up. "I'll be right back—I have to go to the little _gill's_ room."

"Um. Okay?" He raised an eyebrow but watched until she left. _That was bizarrely convenient._ He looked around and made absolutely sure Sollux wasn't there yet. Once he'd confirmed, he dug the bottle of honey out of his backpack, took it out of the plastic bag, and slunk over to the other bottle of honey. As surreptitiously as he was able, he switched the bottles and hurried back to his table, hoping no one saw him.

Eridan sat back down and cast a wary eye over the other occupants of the cafeteria. He didn't think anyone else had noticed—one of the girls he'd seen with Sollux, the one with the short dark hair, was completely distracted by another blond girl who was sitting with her. _Perfect._ Now it was a waiting game.

* * *

Fortunately, Sollux woke up with his regular alarm on Wednesday morning. Today was already better than the day before. He fumbled for his glasses and went to shower, making absolutely sure he'd put in his contact lens afterward. Already, he was feeling better about today.

After finishing off the leftover pizza in his fridge, he caught the bus to school and was sidling into the cafeteria, scoping out Aradia's table, by seven-fifty. She was sitting with Kanaya again, along with a blond girl Sollux didn't know. He didn't quite know what to make of that, but he set his backpack down and took a seat anyway.

"Hey, Sollux!" Aradia said. "This is Rose, one of Kanaya's friends."

The blond girl waved in greeting, and Sollux nodded. "Hey," he said. She was pretty, with hair that had probably been bleached that light-blond color, judging by her darker eyebrows and the fact that she looked like she wasn't completely Caucasian.

Kanaya looked like she was feeling better, too. Her whole demeanor seemed brightened and, best of all, she didn't have her head on the table anymore. She even had a cup of coffee on the table in front of her, reminding Sollux that he'd been meaning to have some tea. "I'll be right back," he said quickly, and got up.

He took a Styrofoam cup, stuck a teabag in it, and filled it with hot water. Once it had steeped, he threw away the bag, popped open the bear of honey, and emptied a generous amount into the cup.

He supposed he should have known something was wrong from the get-go, but he still hadn't quite woken up yet. His tea didn't smell quite right, but he ignored it and took a big gulp.

He nearly gagged, dropping the cup on the floor. _Jesus Christ, what the Hell?! It tasted like hot sauce or something!_ Someone ran up behind him and he straightened up. It was Aradia.

"Are you okay?" she asked anxiously.

"Yeah, I think..." Then he heard that laughter. It was definitely the "I'm laughing at _you_" variety as opposed to the "that was a really funny joke" variety, and he turned his head to glare at whoever the fuck was laughing at him.

Eridan Ampora. Of course.

Feferi was getting up from the table, an irritated look on her face. "_Cod_ damn it, Eridan, grow up," she snapped, stomping out of the cafeteria, but Eridan kept right on laughing.

"I bet _he_ did that," Sollux grumbled.

"What happened?"

"I think he put hot sauce in my tea."

"You got it out of a tea bag, Sollux. I doubt it," she said in a way that was probably intended to be soothing, but he wasn't convinced. Then he saw the honey. _That_ was an open container. He snatched it off the line and tentatively sniffed the cap. Yep, definitely hot sauce. "Smell that."

She gave him a doubtful look but smelled anyway. Her expression changed almost instantly. "Oh, my God, that is nasty!"

"See?! I told you! And he's over there just laughing his head off, so you _know_ it's his fault!"

"Sollux," she started, but he turned around, grabbed his backpack from the table, and stormed out of the cafeteria. Eridan Ampora was going to pay for this.

Once the commotion in the cafeteria died down, Eridan picked up his camera and looked at the picture he'd caught at the exact second the look of shock, anger, and disgust had appeared on Sollux's face. It was almost hysterical, and he applauded himself on a plan smoothly executed. Aside from Feferi's huff (which he understood, but that wasn't the point), he'd gotten off pretty much scot-free, too. Judging by the glare Captor had shot at him before he left, he was probably off to do some plotting of his own, meaning he had his own nemesis now. He liked that prospect, assuming Sollux understood the unspoken rules of this arrangement: no vandalism, no killing flies with shotguns, and no civilian casualties. Harmless pranks warranted harmless pranks, not slashing tires.

If Sollux Captor slashed his tires, Eridan would make sure he paid for them. Still, that kind of measure was baseless and low. He was of the opinion that Captor would be smarter than that, maybe even his intellectual equal. He was actually rather excited to find out how Sollux planned to repay him. If he was right about Sollux, he might even be amused when the strike came.

* * *

"It was Eridan, that asshole with the hipster glasses and the camera on his table," Aradia explained.

Kanaya looked thoughtful. "What will Sollux do in response?"

"I have no idea. I think Feferi tried to warn him about this yesterday—although I really don't think she knew what he was planning—and he said he'd strike back if he was hit, so he's probably going to play a prank on him."

Kanaya nodded. Rose remained silent, ever the detached observer. Abruptly, Kanaya said, "His last name wouldn't be Ampora, would it?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"I see."

"Why?"

"Well, if memory serves me correctly, I believe he is another of Vriska's ex-boyfriends."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "How many exes does she _have_? It's like _Scott Pilgrim vs. The World_, except _she's_ the evil one."

Kanaya cracked a smile. "I believe that would make me Roxy, then?"

"I count two exes that I know," Aradia said. "Kanaya and now him."

"I have a friend," Rose explained. "John Egbert. So that's three I've met in person."

"There's also Tavros Nitram. He attends this school as well," Kanaya said. "Although he's now seeing someone else, which is fortunate for him. I'm sure there are others scattered about the tri-state area."

"No doubt when she saunters in, a dozen people will dash out crying," Rose half-joked.

"I'm sure it will be an intriguing experience."

Aradia sighed. "No doubt." She chanced another glance at Eridan, who was playing with his phone now. "I wonder which evil one came first—Eridan or Vriska?"

"An interesting query. From what I know of Vriska—a fair bit, to be sure—I would assume that her nature rubbed off on him. However, I know next to nothing about Eridan, save his name, so I couldn't judge with any degree of certainty."

Rose pulled out her bag of knitting materials and fished out her latest project, a pink scarf for her sister. Knitting helped clear her mind, helped her think. "Aradia. You said you believe Sollux will attempt to retaliate against Eridan, correct?"

"Probably. I've hardly ever seen him so angry." Aradia raised an eyebrow. "Actually, now that I think about it, he doesn't really let his emotions show all that often. It's only where Eridan is concerned that he becomes a bit... _volatile,_ I guess is the word I'm looking."

"A curious sentiment."

"Eridan has a way of getting under his skin, I guess."

"Agreed," Rose said simply. "Although if Eridan harbors a grudge against him, enough of one to pull a prank on him—no doubt with the anticipation of a returning salvo—one might be inclined to suggest that the feeling is mutual."

"And what makes you think Eridan expects him Sollux to retaliate?"

"He made no secret that it was _him_ who pulled the prank. He _wanted_ Sollux to know. He would also know, based on the incident on Monday, that Sollux has the capacity to seek revenge. So why not? From what I've seen of Eridan, he only really has Feferi as a friend. Maybe this is his alternative to friends—enemies."

Aradia nodded slowly. "I think I see what you're getting at. You could very well be right, too."

"Well, the proverbial ball is in Sollux's court. It won't be long before we see how well Eridan's 'frenemy' courting plays out."

* * *

Sollux knew better than to retaliate when he was angry. It was best to wait. Ampora would be on his guard, expecting something today or tomorrow, maybe Friday. He'd definitely expect something before the end of next week, and as Sollux sat in the library, sipping on freshly-made tea with the honey mercifully not spiked with hot sauce, he allowed himself to ponder how paranoid Ampora would be if he just... _didn't_ seek revenge. No doubt Eridan assumed he would be repaid in kind, but what if he wasn't? What if a week, two weeks, a month or more passed and Sollux still hadn't gotten his revenge? It would either drive Eridan crazy (maybe causing him to pull another prank on him), or maybe he'd be lulled into a sense of false security. It would be great to strike back then, after Eridan thought the storm had blown over, but Sollux didn't have the patience for that.

He wouldn't get his revenge today, though. No, now he needed to think, to plan. He had no delusions—Eridan had had two days to contemplate his revenge, and Sollux figured he'd need at least that long to come up with something just as good.

Still, the inner promise that Eridan would receive his comeuppance was enough to calm him down, at least a little bit. The trick was finding something Eridan _loved_ and ruining it, however temporarily.

An idea began to form at the back of his head, and he smiled to himself. This whole "evil genius" thing could work out well. He drained his cup of tea, threw away the Styrofoam cup, and went to Coding class. He just needed a bit more time and he'd be ready to implement his master plan.

He was five minutes early to class and he slunk to his seat. To his surprise, Equius Zahhak appeared out of nowhere and loomed over him. "Are you alright?" the bigger boy asked, and Sollux nearly fell out of his chair.

"Yeah, fine. Why?"

"Aradia told me what happened in the cafeteria this morning."

"Ah."

"What will you do?"

Sollux sized up Equius. The other boy was nearly six and a half feet tall, and he could no doubt snap Sollux in half if he put his mind to it. He might be a useful accomplice. "Let me answer your question with another question," he said, no longer caring about his lisp. "Do you work on cars by any chance?"

"I do."

"Would you be interested in helping me pay back a little bitch?"

* * *

**I already know what I plan on doing with Sollux's revenge BUT! If anyone wants to give me more suggestions, I would be greatly appreciative because my brain hurts and I've never been a very prank-oriented person.**

**Make it happen.**

**(Also, in another version of this chapter that I almost wrote, Sollux's revenge was going right up to Eridan, grabbing him by his shirt, making as if to punch him in the face, and then actually kissing him. Then he would shove Eridan back, walk out, and promptly collapse on the grass outside because he'd be hyperventilating so much. Eridan would then have a mini gay crisis.)**


	15. Act 15

**15 acts and an intermission and I'm only like five days into this story (Saturday to Wednesday omfg). I do believe the next act will have Sollux's revenge but still, KEEP SENDING ME IDEAS FOR PRANKS! I've gotten some pretty good ones so far, but I need more!**

**Many thanks to Kerra-Chan, crimsonkoteto, grimjaws, thepeopleofthecrysis, obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, TheShipperOfShips, and Touch of Black for your reviews to last act! (Also, I know everyone wants some sloppy Erisol makeouts, but the fic isn't even half over. That would be bad for pacing!)**

* * *

"I am surrounded by absolutely incompetent morons," Karkat groaned.

"What do you mean by that? You mean like, they're incompetent at being morons making them actually pretty smart, or—" John started, but Karkat interrupted.

"Shut the fuck up, Egbert, no one gives a shit!"

He couldn't tell for sure, but he thought Dave rolled his eyes. "What happened now, short stuff?"

If Dave had been sitting next to Karkat instead of on John's other side, he would have smacked the back of his head. "Fuck off, Strider."

Dave and John exchanged glances. "Well, jeez, Kar, I thought you _wanted_ us to ask," John said patiently.

"My lab partner for the whole fucking semester found it advisable to piss off my tech support for the foreseeable future! Between the two of these assholes fighting, I'm not going to get any work done!"

"Eridan?"

"What did that douche-magnet do?" Dave asked, interested in spite of himself.

"I don't fucking know, Terezi told me and she heard it from Aradia, but something went down this morning and now Sollux is out for Ampora's blood and I can guarantee they're going to put me right in the middle of their hate-flirting. I _cannot_ deal with this right now!"

"Ah, yes, life is _so_ hard for you right now, Vantas. The entire universe isn't bending to your every whim and now your days are fraught with struggle." Dave settled back in his seat and laced his fingers together behind his head. "Oh, _and_ you got the number of a hot, albeit blind, chick and she's actually into you for once."

Karkat went red. "You don't know that! She might not be!"

"True. In fact, I have no idea why she would be. You're a horrible person." A teasing smile twitched at the corner of Dave's mouth and John let out a giggle.

"No, you're not!" he protested, still grinning. "I'm sure she likes you."

Karkat's blush deepened. "I am _so_ not even worried about that right now!" he lied. "With Captor and Ampora fighting and my computer's hold on functionality tenuous at best, something's liable to explode and it's probably going to be $700 worth of electronics!"

"Well, then, I guess you have two options," John said soothingly. "You can get them to stop fighting by giving them a common enemy..."

"Or?" Karkat asked, not sure he actually wanted to know what was going on in Egbert's head.

"Or you can add fuel to the fire and join their prank wars!"

Dave smacked his forehead, damn near knocking his glasses off his face. "No, John. That sounds like a terrible idea. Not everything can be solved with practical jokes."

Karkat rolled his eyes. "Fuck, Egbert, sometimes _Gamzee_ makes more sense than you!"

"Hey, speaking of the Juggalo, I haven't seen him in awhile. Does he still even go here?" John asked.

"Yeah. I have no idea what classes he takes, though. He won't tell me. I'm pretty sure he skips them anyway. Tavros would know for sure, though." Karkat glanced at the front of the room. Their teacher was a short, amiable man who couldn't hear past the fourth row unless you shouted and could hardly see past the sixth. The trio always sat right in the back of Professor Deuce's class, so they could talk unnoticed—even the people around them didn't care, since most of them were asleep anyway. Still, Karkat rather liked Deuce. He hardly ever gave homework and he made Karkat look like a normal-sized person.

"He's probably taking classes he can skate off easily," Dave drawled. "That's what I'd do, anyway. No offense, but he doesn't seem like the brightest guy."

Karkat shrugged. Considering Gamzee was his best friend and he was Gamzee's best friend, he didn't know all that much about him. Surprising, considering the guy was also his roommate. In fact, the only thing Karkat could say about him with any degree of certainty was that he smoked a lot of weed. That didn't surprise him, though.

Maybe next semester he'd take a slew of easy classes with him. After this semester, his brain could use a vacation.

* * *

_Splash!_

Feferi was two hours early for swimming practice, but that was fine with her. The pool was empty aside from her, allowing her extra time and space to just float. She'd dived in and slipped right to the bottom, and now she was floating there, inches above the pool floor, looking up and holding her breath. She'd been swimming for almost eighteen years—she had quite an impressive lung capacity at this point. She wouldn't have been surprised if she randomly sprouted gills.

Whenever she was stressed, she swam. One of the many things she and Eridan had in common was their love of the water, but there was a difference there. Eridan loved being in the water, wading in it, but not necessarily being _one_ with it. Feferi, on the other hand, would have gladly never come out of the pool or the lake or the ocean if she had the choice. She felt like she was truly one with the water, and she loved to swim. She wasn't the fastest swimmer—she preferred going at her own pace as opposed to competition swimming—but being on the swim team gave her an excuse to use the school pool, so she took it. It was where she went to clear her head, her way of staying sane. And right now, Eridan was driving her crazy.

She'd _told_ him to let it go, that messing with Sollux was a mistake, that they were even. She'd made him promise he wouldn't play a prank or get his stupid revenge on him, and then he turned right around and did it anyway. He was such a child sometimes.

Anger bubbled up in side of her but she forced herself to stay calm. She knew if she got pissed off, she'd try to inhale, and even though she hadn't come close to drowning once, it was always a lingering concern. But that was another reason she went into the water to calm herself—it forced her to think about her breathing (or lack thereof).

After four minutes, she shot to the surface and sucked in a lungful of sweet air. That first breath after being submerged was always the best, and she smiled. No matter how much Eridan pissed her off sometimes, she couldn't stay angry at him forever.

She kicked her feet up and straightened out her body, allowing herself to float on the surface. Now, of course, it was Sollux's turn. He had told her only yesterday that if Eridan pulled anything, he would strike back, and she didn't doubt the truth to his words. The way she saw it, Eridan had whatever was coming to him. She'd failed to explain it to him earlier, but maybe after whatever Sollux did for his revenge... Well, she didn't begrudge him that. She wished _one_ of them would let it go and had the feeling that Sollux would be easier to reason with than Eridan, but she felt like getting through to either of them would be a pain in the ass.

No matter how smart Eridan thought he was, Sollux was smarter—she could tell. It was her job to keep Eridan out of trouble, even if she supposed he deserved it. She had no doubt that Sollux could destroy Eridan if he put his mind to it, but she also knew he wasn't malicious enough to actually do it. She sighed.

She really needed to punch Eridan in the face once in awhile. While he wasn't wearing his glasses, so she didn't break them. Or she could punch him in the back of the head. Lord knew he deserved it.

Her watch beeped at her, informing her that it was ten o'clock. Only forty-five minutes until swim practice started. In fifteen minutes, her teammates would start trickling in. She'd had quite enough of being by herself by now, so she was looking forward to some company. Jade was usually good for a laugh, and Kankri had a tendency to belly-flop into the pool first thing. Even though he was usually fairly reserved, the water seemed to bring him out of his shell, at least a little.

Feferi hauled herself out of the pool, laid her towel on a bench, sat down, and put her hair up in a sloppy bun. She probably should have done so before she got her hair wet, but she was beyond caring. She was ready for some hardcore swimming practice.

* * *

Sollux was quiet all through lunch. He was plotting, although he already had a good idea for how he was going to get revenge against Eridan. He didn't feel like discussing it around Aradia, though.

Equius didn't ask him about it, either. He'd agreed to help Sollux and Sollux had explained his idea. The taller boy found the plan ingenious, but Sollux had also sworn him to secrecy. Equius was good at keeping promises, he figured. The guy had an honorable streak a mile wide. If he promised something, you could rely on him to keep it.

Aradia wouldn't approve, though—neither of his plan or his using her sort-of almost-boyfriend as an accomplice. She shot curious glances at Sollux, as if she wanted to ask but wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. But when Nepeta asked a question, Aradia blinked. "Sorry?"

Nepeta giggled. "I _said_, that _furr_iend of yours, Kanaya? That's her over there, right?" She pointed over Aradia's shoulder to a table across the room, to where Kanaya and Rose were having lunch.

"Yeah. That's her—the dark-haired one."

Nepeta leaned forward, inadvertently dragging her sleeves across Equius's face. He brushed them out of the way but otherwise ignored them, barely seeming to notice the way she was sitting on him. "Who's the blond with her? They look cute together!"

"That's Rose," Aradia said slowly. "She's Kanaya's friend, but I don't think she's... well, I guess I don't really _know_, but I'm _pretty_ sure she's straight." She glanced at Sollux, as if for confirmation, and he shrugged.

"I got no idea," he said.

"No, but look! Rose is actually listening to what she's saying! You can tell _furr_om all the way over here! It's so cute!"

"You ship everyone with someone," Equius said, but Nepeta gave him a playful swat on the top of his head.

"Of course I don't! Not _everyone_!"

Aradia laughed. "Okay, then, who _don't_ you ship with someone?"

Nepeta looked skyward for a moment, putting her hand to her chin. "Me," she said after a moment. "But that's okay, because I haven't found the right _purr_son for me yet!"

"That doesn't count," Equius said. "Try again."

"People I haven't met!"

Aradia shook her head, smiling. "They don't count, either."

"Teachers!"

"Okay, I guess that's legit. But _still_. You ship a lot of people."

"I look at it like this: I see two people who I think should be together. Sometimes I'm wrong, but mostly, I'm not. I don't actually do anything to push them together—mostly," she added with a grin when Aradia raised her eyebrows, as if to say, "Oh, really?" "I just sit back and think about how adorable they are! I'm not actually interfering in anyone's life! See?"

"I suppose you could be worse," Aradia acknowledged.

"Yep! But I know that I've been wrong be_furr_, so I don't get involved! Everyone's happy!"

"It's still a bit strange," Equius said. Nepeta swatted at him again.

"So who do you ship with Sollux?" Aradia asked with a mischievous grin at him. He looked up, wishing he could shoot lasers out of his eyes.

"You don't want to know who I ship _you_ with?"

"I already know who you ship me with," Aradia laughed, and Equius seemed to blush.

Nepeta grinned. "I'm not saying. I think he'll hit me."

"Sollux doesn't hit people."

"I don't know about that—I came pretty close to hitting Eridan today," he said. "But yeah, I don't want to know."

"Good, 'cause I'm not telling!"

Aradia laughed and Sollux looked back down at his notebook. He had more important things to worry about anyway. For example, the sketch he was currently working on.

He'd thought long and hard about the sunglasses idea yesterday and decided he liked it. After giving up on TV, he'd scoured the internet to see if he could find prescription sunglasses in the style he wanted, but to no avail. He'd have to think of something else. In the meantime, he was content to draw them out several times.

Equius saw the drawings, too. "Interesting design," he said.

"Uh. Thanks."

"Do you actually own them?"

"Nah. I tried to find some online. Nothing, at least not that I can get a prescription for." He looked up and Equius was smiling again. "What?"

"I can make them."

"You—what?"

"My brother and I are both rather handy. He has glass cutting and shaping equipment at home. I'm fond of metalworking, myself."

Sollux looked down and back up. "You can actually make these?"

Equius nodded.

"How long would it take?"

"The weekend. Maybe longer, depending on your prescription strength."

"My eyes aren't too bad."

Equius shrugged.

"How much are we talking?"

"Horuss finds glassworking to be a hobby. He would probably do it for free."

"And the frames?"

"The material would be inexpensive. Would $20 sound fair?"

Sollux dug into his wallet and pulled out two ten-dollar bills. "Done." He'd only known the guy for two days and already Equius was proving himself to be a valuable friend. If they were able to pull off this prank, it would make his whole month.

* * *

**Equius can do everything.**


	16. Act 16

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday. So much shit happened that I had literally no time to write. Things are all better now, and I present you with this.**

**Many thanks to Snookster, fangirl4you, Janetissherlocked, BlOo KiSsEs, obsessed01616, Heki564, thepeopleofthecrysis, and Kerra-Chan for your reviews to the previous act!**

* * *

Eridan generally woke up later on Fridays than he did throughout the rest of the week. This was generally because he stayed up later on Thursday nights, cranking Florence and the Machine on his sound system to drown out Cronus's Elvis records and playing with Photoshop until his eyes ached. This was also because his first class on Friday started at ten and ran until eleven-thirty, and his only other class that day started at one and ended at two-thirty. Getting to sleep at a reasonable hour became less important.

He yawned and stretched before he practically tumbled out of bed, groping for his glasses. It was eight-forty-five, and he could hear Cronus already moving around in the apartment. The acrid, burning stench of cigarettes hit his nostrils and he pulled a face. First thing in the morning, he did not want to smell that. Ignoring the growl in his stomach, he made up his bed and went to take his shower.

Feferi hadn't spoken to him much since the incident on Wednesday. He was a little annoyed with that, but he also understood why she was so upset. He'd basically lied to her about his intentions, and maybe it _was_ a little immature, but his honor had been insulted. She should have known that he would try to avenge himself. He knew better than to say it to her, though. He wasn't _that_ stupid.

Still, they were going home tonight, something that was more than enough to brighten his mood. All he had to do was make it through two bullshit classes, wait for Fef to get out of swim practice, and they'd be heading back for a weekend with their families, such as they were. Feferi's older sister Meenah had deigned to live at home for as long as humanly possible, but whether that was because she was simply lazy or wanted to provide moral support for their mother remained to be seen. Feferi's father had been in and out of their lives for the past twenty years, and considering this bout of "out" had lasted for almost a year now, it looked to be staying that way. (Feferi had secretly confided that she preferred it that way; her mother was financially stable on her own and her dad was, as she put it, "a bit of a tool," but Eridan saw the sad look in her eyes when she talked about him sometimes.) To Eridan's relief, Cronus had _never_ come home for the weekend. He'd said several times that he didn't mind their parents and actually kind of liked having his little brother around, but he'd never really felt like part of the family and preferred to keep a hundred miles between them at all times. Their parents agreed.

Cronus was munching happily on four slices of bacon when Eridan finished his morning routine. He poured himself a cup of coffee and hopped up on the counter, eyeing his older brother. Naturally, Cronus barely noticed until his food was gone. Then he let out a loud belch, plucked the cigarette that had been perched behind his ear, and lit it. "You stayin' here this weekend, daddy-o?" he mumbled around the cancer stick.

Eridan closed his eyes and pretended the sound of his voice didn't grate on his nerves. "Nah. Fef an' me are headin' home."

The elder Ampora nodded. "Back on Sunday?"

"That's the plan."

"Drive safe, daddy-o." Cronus stood up, ashed his cigarette out in one of the many ash trays that littered the apartment, and slouched out of the kitchen, leaving Eridan feeling a bit confused.

Genuine brotherly affection was a rare thing between them. The "drive safe" bit had never happened before, and Eridan wondered if his brother was dying and not telling him. He thought about asking but decided he was probably being paranoid and let it go. As soon as he finished off his coffee, he put his cup in the dishwasher, filled up his Thermos with more coffee, and headed out the door, snagging his backpack and duffel bag from what passed as their living room.

* * *

He was able to park right in front of the cafeteria building when he got to school. Other people had already trickled out of the parking lot, the lucky ones whose first (and most likely only) class started at seven-thirty or eight. "See you after swim practice," he called to Fef as they parted ways. She waved but otherwise didn't acknowledge him. She was still feeling a bit snippy toward him.

He drained the last of his coffee out of his Thermos on his way to class and stuck it in the side pocket of his backpack as he walked. Even though it would warm up in the afternoon, it was in the fifties right now and Eridan zipped up his hoodie all the way to the top, shoving his hands in his pockets. He wasn't built for the cold—he was made for eternal summer and the ocean and sunlight. Right now it was gray and cool, and he shivered slightly.

It was warmer in the classroom, though, so he unzipped his hoodie but left it on after he sat down. He felt like paying attention to the lecture, but it was Friday and his interest was fleeting at best. Despite the coffee coursing through his system, he felt his eyes drooping, so he propped his book up in front of him, put his head down, and napped. No one would care. It was Friday.

* * *

Sollux was at a table by the window when he saw Eridan's purple BMW park. He was almost completely certain it was his (he hadn't seen another car that color at school) but it was confirmed when he and Feferi climbed out and headed off to their respective classes. He caught Equius's eye. "Got everything?"

Equius nodded solemnly. They picked up their backpacks and headed out, Nepeta cheering behind them, "Go get 'em!"

Sollux ducked out of the front sliding doors and watched until Eridan disappeared into one of the buildings a thousand yards away. He motioned for Equius to follow him and the two of them traipsed out to the parking lot.

Eridan, the douchebag that he was, had taken care to park in a space without a car on either side, which really just made Sollux's job that much easier. Equius set down his backpack and pulled out a dolly, a piece of wood with wheels made for rolling under cars. Eridan's car didn't sit very far off the ground ("It would have been ideal if he owned an SUV or we had a lift," Equius had told him), so there was no way in Hell Equius would be able to fit under it, but the plan was for it to be Sollux anyway. However, he realized after he lay flat on the dolly that he was wrong—the car was too low for pretty much _anyone_ to fit with the dolly. "Looks like we're throwing," he sighed, standing back up.

Equius set the dolly on the grass in front of the parking space as Sollux produced two rolls of plastic wrap from his own backpack. He opened the first one, dropped the box on the ground, and unraveled about ten feet. He tied the end to the front passenger door handle and flung the rest of the roll to Equius, who stretched it taut and tossed it under the car back to Sollux. Around and around the plastic wrap went, the two of them being as careful as possible so as not to set off the alarm.

The first roll ran out a little way past the joint between the front doors and the rear doors, as Sollux suspected it would. He unrolled the second one, joined it to where the first one ended, and continued the process until they were winding the plastic wrap across the rear windshield. He _wanted_ to wrap the car from nose to tail, lengthwise down the car, but when he looked at his watch, he saw that it had been nearly an hour and Equius was sweating profusely, so this would have to do. They doubled back around on the wrap until the second roll ran out and Sollux stuffed all the trash underneath the car. He then withdrew an economy-sized bottle of dish soap and emptied the whole thing across the windows, on the handles, down the sides, smearing it into the plastic wrap. He stuck the empty bottle under the car, too. As a final touch, he pulled out a dry-erase marker and wrote across the windshield, _EA—HAVE FUN WITH __THIS__ MESS! —SC_

He capped the marker, put it back in his backpack as Equius went to put the dolly back in his own car and grab a towel, and then the two of them sat on the hood until the car alarm finally went off. Laughing like a madman, Sollux followed Equius in a frenzied dash back to the cafeteria building. This was _definitely_ worth skipping his Mythology of Comic Books class.

* * *

He woke up to the faint, distant honk of a car alarm going off. He managed not to jump in his seat as he woke, slowly taking stock of his surroundings.

Class was still ongoing—apparently with another half-hour of class scheduled. That suited him just fine, since his nap had revived him. That car alarm was pretty annoying too, just loud enough to remind him it was there. He hoped whatever asshole wasn't silencing the alarm would crash their car. It was getting really old, really fast.

The alarm was still blaring when class let out, and he realized it was coming from the parking lot in front of the cafeteria. Curiosity getting the better of him, he followed the sound until the parking lot swung into view and he stared.

That was definitely _his_ car with the lights flashing and the alarm blaring. He couldn't tell from here what they—whoever _they_ were, but he had a pretty good idea who—did to the outside, but even from this distance, he could see something written on his windshield. He tore across campus, heedless of the computer and camera in his backpack, and darted past four lanes of traffic (the speed limit on campus was 15, but _still_). As he got closer, he slowed down until he finally stopped in front of his car.

_EA—HAVE FUN WITH THIS MESS! —SC_

Numbly, he set down his backpack, clicked his key fob to silence the alarm, and circled his car. Gingerly, he touched the plastic wrap. His fingertips came away soaked in what smelled like dish soap. He made another circuit around the car, looking more closely until he confirmed to himself that there were no other surprises waiting for him. He inspected the scrawl on his windshield—somehow, it just _looked_ like it would belong to Sollux Captor; none of the letters were even and everything was spiky, as if he could stab Eridan with his words—and touched a soap-coated finger to the period of the exclamation mark. The mark wiped away easily but left remnants on his skin like dry-erase markers. That thought relieved him.

He dropped to his knees and saw what remained of the tools of this trick. Two cardboard boxes and rolls from plastic wrap and an empty bottle of dish soap had been left under his car. The trash bugged him, but not too badly.

_So. No lasting damage._ Well, it certainly wasn't the most original of pranks, but a good way to ensure he wasted fifteen minutes trying to cut his car free from the wrapping. Sollux had stuck to the rules: inconvenience, but no truly malicious intent. _Still_, he thought as he dug out an X-Acto knife from his backpack and set to work carefully cutting away the plastic, _I expected more originality._

He worked for close to twenty minutes, taking extra care to ensure he didn't accidentally scrape any paint. Once he had six hundred square yards of soap-covered plastic wrap littering the concrete around his car, he straightened up and turned toward the cafeteria building.

If it was _him_, he would have been watching to see Sollux's reaction—actually, that's exactly what he'd done on Wednesday. He scanned the windows and, sure enough, saw a familiar figure at a table near one of the windows. _Thought so_, he said to himself, smirking.

He unlocked his car door, took a few napkins out of his glove compartment, and wiped Sollux's scribble from the windshield. He put his backpack in his car, taking a second to ensure he hadn't damaged his electronics in his scramble (he hadn't), and gathered up the trash the other boy had left behind. He made sure all the soap was facing in so it didn't smear on his clothing and he took it to the dumpster at the far end of the parking lot, not giving anywhere near enough of a damn to separate the cardboard and other recyclables today. Then he started the walk back to the cafeteria building.

* * *

Sollux hadn't been able to help his laughter when he got a good look at Eridan's face as he realized what had happened. It was too priceless, although he also expected Ampora to flip his shit. To his surprise, though, Eridan circled the car once before clearly pronouncing the car to be unharmed and calmly cleaning up the mess. He turned to look through the windows of the cafeteria, but Sollux quickly pretended to be engrossed by his textbook and didn't dare look up until about thirty seconds later. By then, Eridan was hauling the trash to the dumpster and heading back. Sollux looked back down. Now it was time to see how Ampora retaliated (which Sollux had no doubt he'd do).

He heard the footsteps approach but he didn't bother looking until the person was a foot from him. Eridan leaned down, got right in his face, and said with a smirk, "You can do better than that."

That two seconds of personal space invasion was enough for Sollux to register three things: there was no faint line around Eridan's irises, meaning they were literally purple naturally; the scent clinging to him, whether it was cologne or hair product or soap, was incredibly intoxicating; and it sounded like Eridan was issuing a challenge. And then he walked away.

As for the first two, he wasn't quite sure how he felt except his heart was racing and he had to fight the urge to watch him go and his head was spinning and _good God_, those jeans made his ass look fantastic. He closed his eyes and mentally punched himself in the face. _Get a grip._ But the third realization made him smile. If it was a war Eridan wanted, he had one.

_Let the games begin._

* * *

**Ah, yes, and the first true flirtations with gay business has also begun.**

**I still need more prank ideas. LIKE GIVE ME SOME THINGS ERIDAN COULD DO TO SOLLUX. Their hate-flirting is awesome.**


	17. Act 17

**I don't really know how this happened since my original plan involved me playing The Sims 3 all tonight, but here you go.**

**Many thanks to Kerra-Chan, obsessed01616, LinkinPark X, fangirl4you, KatzeSchnee, TheShipperOfShips, Heki564, BlOo KiSsEs, dreamingfishy, and two guests named RandomAnonymous and Scone for your reviews to last act, and especially to those of you who gave me prank ideas! They were all wonderful but most of them wouldn't really work...they don't know where the other lives so they can't exactly sneak into each other's apartments, Eridan has a Mac (less susceptible to viruses), etc. Don't worry, though, I'll think of something! (If all else fails, I can revert to my second thought for Act 14!)**

* * *

Feferi towel-dried her hair as best she could after she got out of the school showers. She had rather enjoyed practice today, more so than usual, possibly because Assistant Coach Diamonds was running practice. He was less of an asshole than Coach Slick and generally let them get away with more fooling around. It was that way every Friday, though—Coach Slick would hand over control of the practice to Diamonds and sit in his back office and sleep, and Diamonds would run practice for an hour and a half and then let them do what they wanted for the last half-hour. It was a pretty sweet deal, but they were a good team, so they could afford to slack a little.

She draped her towel around her neck, shouldered her backpack, and started toward the main campus parking lot, where Eridan had parked, when she paused. Someone was leaning against the wall about thirty feet away, his head down. Someone who looked suspiciously like...

"Sollux?" she called, and the boy looked up. Definitely him. Apparently he'd been waiting for her, too, because he made a beeline right for her.

"Hey, FF."

"What's going on? It's Eridan, isn't it?" she asked.

His whole face twisted in uncertainty for a moment. "Kinda. I pranked him today. Wrapped his car in plastic wrap and covered it in dish soap."

She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to them underneath her glasses. "Oh, my _cod_," she murmured, "I'm never gonna hear the end of this. Okay, and?"

He sighed. "And he told me I could do better than that."

She opened her eyes, curiosity evident on her face. "What else did he say?"

Sollux shook his head. "That's it. I watched him take all the wrapping off his car, all calm and cool, and he just threw away all the trash, then he came inside and told me I could do better than that and walked away."

"Huh. That's... weird."

"So... what should I do?"

"You have the Pesterchum app, right?"

"Yeah..." The question in his voice was obvious.

"Alright, _whale,_ add me. I'm 'cuttlefishCuller.' I'll _glub_ to Eridan about it—discreetly," she added with a laugh at his suddenly-panicked face. "I won't let him know you're wondering. When I figure it out, I'll let you know. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure." He was already on his phone. "I'm 'twinArmageddons.' So, you know, you don't see some random person messaging you and freak out."

She grinned. "Okay. And... y'know, just in case you may need it later, Eridan's handle is 'caligulasAquarium.'"

He looked up as she shrugged.

"You never know. Pesterchum could be a halfway decent prank outlet," she said innocently. "Not that I'm condoning this absurd prank war or anything, but I guess if you _have_ to..."

Sollux smiled. "Thanks. I'll get him good next time."

"I have no doubt in my mind about _that_."

He waved as he walked away, and she continued on her trek to Eridan's car. When she caught sight of it, she peered at it to see if there was any evidence of Sollux's prank, but apparently Eridan really had cleaned it all up. His car looked the same as it had this morning, and Eridan was calmly sitting in the grass in front of it, pounding down a venti-sized something from Starbucks, and playing a game on his phone. "Hey, Eridan!" she said brightly, as though she hadn't just spoken to the guy who was his mortal enemy five minutes before.

He gave her a suspicious look and she almost smacked herself. This morning, she'd been ice-cold, barely saying a word to him in the car. He'd know something was up. "Hey," he said slowly, standing up and pocketing his phone. "Ready to go?"

"Yep. More than ready! I wanna go _sea_ my mom!"

He rolled his eyes. "That was a 'sea' with an 'a' in it, wasn't it?"

She gave him an exaggerated shrug. "Nautical puns. You knew what you were getting into."

Eridan snorted with laughter, unlocking the doors. "I really didn't, though."

She tossed her backpack and towel in the trunk of his car and went back around to the front. Eridan was already buckled in, so as soon as she buckled her seatbelt, he pulled out of the parking lot. For about ten minutes, they didn't exchange a word.

The quiet apparently grew too tense for Eridan to stand after that because he asked, "Anything excitin' happen today?"

She chewed on her lip. "Not _reel_ly. Swim practice was pretty good, I guess. What about you?"

Eridan sneaked a quick glance at her. "Sol pranked me."

"Really?" She hoped she sounded sufficiently surprised and not like she hadn't already heard this before. "What did he do?"

"Wrapped the car in Glad Wrap and Palmolive. Left me a nasty little note on the windshield. Nothin' too terrible. I was a li'l disappointed, to be honest."

"Disappointed?"

"I expected more... _more_ from him."

"More more?" she asked, realizing she sounded like a broken record or a parrot.

"A li'l more style, I guess. More originality. The execution was flawless, but the overall prank was mediocre."

"So what happened?"

He shifted in his seat, whether out of physical or mental discomfort she couldn't say. "I told him to try again. I know he's smarter than all that. He's up to the challenge."

Feferi sat back, eyeballing him and trying to figure out what he hoped to accomplish with this. Sometimes he could be a little screwy.

"What?"

"Just trying to get a feel for what exactly is going on with you two."

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"_Whale_... you claim to hate the guy, but—"

"I don't seem to recall me sayin' I hate him, Fef."

"You _act_ like it. You were all pissed-off on Monday until Wednesday. Sure seems like you don't actually like him."

"Not likin' someone ain't the same as hatin' someone."

"Fair point. Let me clarify. It seems like you two aren't about to be _fronds_ in the near future—or at all—but you're cool with him playing pranks on you to the point where you're grading his performance. Doesn't that seem a little weird?"

"I'm not gonna have a shitty nemesis, Fef."

"_Nemesis_? Are you _serious_? You're doing this to have a freaking _enemy_?!"

They were at a red light, so he was able to take his hands off the wheel to give her an exaggerated shrug. _"Yeah,_ so?"

"Whatever." Mostly to gauge his reaction, she added, "I don't know—if I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a crush on the guy."

A muscle in Eridan's jaw twitched. "I'm _straight_," he grumbled. "I don't have a fuckin' _crush_ on Sollux Captor. Besides, even if I _was_ gay, I think I'd have better taste than him."

"He seems to be a decent enough rival," she said innocently.

"Yeah, well, I don't wanna fuck my rival," he spat.

Feferi fell asleep twenty minutes later, but drifted awake every now and again, just long enough to send a Pesterchum message to twinArmageddons.

_CC: )(ey Sollux! W)(at's up?_

_TA: nothiing much headiing home for the weekend. you?_

_CC: Same )(ere! Do you go )(ome every weekend?_

_TA: ii go home every day_

_TA: waiit you mean back two my parent2' hou2e?_

_TA: ?_

_TA: 2tiill there?_

_CC: SORRY! I K-E-EP FALLING ASL-E-EP!_

_CC: Yea)(, not w)(erever you live w)(ile you're at sc)(ool! Unless t)(at IS w)(ere you live!_

_CC: W)(ic)( I'm assuming it's not_

_TA: yeah no ii generally 2tay at my apartment ii go home 2ometiime2 but mo2tly ii avoiid iit_

_CC: W)(y?_

_TA: …_

_TA: long 2tory ii don't liike talkiing about iit_

_CC: Fair enoug)(. W)(ale, I talked to Eridan and )(e said a lot of stupid stuff t)(at I didn't really understand but_

_TA: liike what_

_CC: Like I guess )(e sees you as )(is rival or some carp like t)(at._

_TA: the dude clearly ha2 ii22ue2_

_TA: …_

_TA: fall a2leep agaiin?_

_CC: SORRY SORRY SORRY! Swim practice kicked my gills today!_

_CC: 38D but I won't deny )(e )(as issues!_

_CC: But )(e is also my best frond and it's my job to keep )(im out of trouble!_

_TA: what el2e diid he 2ay_

_TA: anythiing_

_TA: liike what the fuck diid he mean by 'you can do better than that' cuz that'2 what'2 really throwiing me off_

_CC: W)(ale, based on t)(e t)(ings )(e's told me, )(e expects you to try again!_

_CC: I guess )(e's giving you a c)(ance to play a better prank on )(im_

_CC: I don't get it but w)(atever!_

_TA: huh weiird. got any iidea2 cuz ii'm ba2iically fre2h out_

_CC: Not off t)(e top of my )(ead but if I t)(ink of somet)(ing, I'll let you know!_

_TA: cool thank2_

_TA: hey by the way_

_CC: Y-ES? 38D_

_TA: what'2 up wiith the parenthe2e2 tho2e are really triippiing me up_

_CC: O)( w)(ale t)(ey look like t)(e Pisces symbol!_

_CC: W)(ic)( is relevant because I am a Pisces!_

_CC: T)(at's )(ow Eridan picked )(is )(andle, too!_

_TA: he'2 a pii2ce2 two_

_CC: O)( no sorry )(e's an Aquarius. )(ence t)(e "aquarium" part of )(is )(andle._

_TA: what about the caliigula thiing_

_CC: )(e never really explained t)(at to me_

_CC: W)(at about YOUR little quirk? Doubling your Is and replacing your Ss wit)( 2s?_

_TA: and ii replace every 'to' or 'too' wiith 'two' but yeah. ii never really thought about iit iit ju2t 2eemed two feel riight. whiich ii2 kiinda weiird now that ii thiink about iit 2iince ii'm a gemiinii a2 iit happen2_

_CC: )(e)(e)(e)(e w)(ale it can be a bit )(ard to read too so don't knock my quirk!_

_TA: yeah ii get that a lot KK complaiin2 about iit all the tiime_

_CC: KK?_

_TA: karkat vanta2 2ometiime2 ii forget not everyone know2 who ii know_

_CC: Vantas?_

_CC: Does )(e )(ave a younger brother named Kankri, about 18?_

_TA: yeah_

_CC: GLUB GLUB GLUB )(-E'S ON T)(-E SWIM T-EAM WIT)( M-E! T)(AT IS SO COOL!_

_CC: GLUB GLUB GLUB!_

_TA: the la2t tiime ii 2aw hiim he wa2 liike 16 he'2 a 2quiirelly liittle guy_

_CC: Yep, I guess )(e's a little odd!_

_CC: But )(e's pretty nice, too!_

_TA: alriight 2o_

_TA: devii2e another prank two pull on ampora_

_TA: thii2 ii2 my goal for the weekend_

_CC: Good luck!_

* * *

After Feferi shook herself awake for the final time, they pulled into her driveway and got out. She yawned, stretched, and went to the back seat to get her overnight bag out of Eridan's car as he did the same. It was only after she'd slung her back over her shoulder that she realized that the driveway was devoid of cars aside from her mother's, Eridan's, and her own.

"Meenah's not home," she observed, and Eridan cast his gaze to the street to confirm that it was the case.

"She's _always_ home," he objected, as if her absence was a personal affront.

"She's probably out getting something for my mom." She led the way to the front door and knocked, sparing a second to glance out to where the sun was starting to disappear over the dense copse of trees that surrounded her house on three sides. Actually, _house_ was a bit of an understatement. It was more of a mansion, something that most of her childhood friends found a bit intimidating (and then, later, the perfect party house, despite the fact that she'd only held one wild high school party here). Eridan was the only exception, though, since his parents were almost as wealthy as her mother.

"Feferi!" her mother said cheerfully, opening the door and wrapping her younger daughter in a warm embrace. "I missed you last weekend! And Eridan, I missed you too!" she added, stepping outside to hug him as well. "Did you have a good drive?"

"Long an' borin'," he joked. "Fef was no company—she kept falling asleep."

"I have no idea _how_, since you kept starting and stopping so fast it gave me whiplash," she shot back.

"Come on in, guys. Are you hungry? I can make some pizza! I still have that soy cheese from the last time you were home."

Feferi pulled a face. "Ew, Mom, that stuff's like two months old! You need to get rid of it!"

"Oh, I'm sure we can find something else for you."

Eridan followed them into the house for a moment. "I'm just gonna use the shower real quick—we're fixin' my hair tonight an' I need to get the gel out."

"Alright!" Ms. Peixes said, giving him a wave. "I'm sure we'll still be deciding what to have by the time you finish."

Eridan chuckled to himself. He had no doubt that she was right.

* * *

**ARGH PESTERLOGS. FUCK.**

**I'm living in a universe that needs a Pesterchum app. The messenger is great but I NEED A MOBILE APP. (For anyone who cares, my Pesterchum handle is eccentricAuthorator.)**

***EDIT* OMFG I THINK I FELL ASLEEP I FUCKED UP SOLLUX'S QUIRK SO BAD I AM A FUCKING MORON *bashes face in***


	18. Act 18

**So... it gets a little mature-ish at the end I guess... ummm...**

**Many thanks to obsessed01616, Heki564, thepeopleofthecrysis, BlOoKiSsEs, Kerra-Chan, TheShipperOfShips, and one guest for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

It was a huge pain in the ass to scrub the gel from his hair without using shampoo (which, followed so quickly by a dyeing, a bleaching, and another dyeing was a sure way to kill his hair), but he'd mastered it after nearly two years of the same thing. Eridan could have just as easily (if not more easily) foregone the product this morning, but the thought of going out with unstyled hair had been "fuckin' unconscionable," as he put it to Feferi, so here he was eight hours later, scrubbing his hair clean with only water. It took him forty-five minutes, after which he had to comb out his hair to ensure all the gel was gone and blow-dry it, but within an hour, he was traipsing back down the stairs of Feferi's house with his duffel bag over his shoulder again.

When he got to the kitchen, she and her mother were elbow-deep in what looked like the beginnings of a vegan lasagna. It was Fef's favorite home-cooked meal, something that was sure to put her in a good mood. This would only make her less likely to smear dye on his face (he loved purple, but he didn't relish the idea of walking around all weekend with purple skin), and for that, he was grateful.

"Want some help?" he asked, hopping up on the counter a few feet from where they were working. Feferi flung a dish towel at him.

"No, fish, we're almost done. Besides, you can't cook anyway." She was calling him "fish" again. Normally, he'd be annoyed, but this at least meant he was returning to her good graces.

"Everyone can cook," Ms. Peixes said in a way that was probably meant to be chastising but came out more playful than anything. "It all depends on direction, and _I_ happen to be an excellent director. If you guys come over for dinner tomorrow, I can show you."

Maybe if he picked up a bit of cooking skill, he could actually get Cronus to eat some real food as opposed to takeout every night. He was sure his parents would appreciate that. They still cared about Cronus, even if they weren't entirely assured of his sanity (nor was Eridan, for that matter). "That sounds like a good idea."

"Could you set the table, Eridan?" Ms. Peixes added, pointing toward the drawer where the cutlery was stored.

"Sure." He hopped off the counter and went to the drawer. "Four, right?"

"No, just three. Meenah's not here."

Feferi slammed the oven door and whirled around in a blur of dark hair and tyrian purple. "Where is she?" she demanded.

"She went to go see her boyfriend."

"Since when does Meenah have a boyfriend?" She was serious—she hadn't taken the opportunity to replace "boyfriend" with "boy_frond_." Eridan went on setting the table, watching carefully.

Ms. Peixes shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "A month or so. I don't think it's too serious yet."

"Okay, well, is he nice?" Feferi asked, leaning against the counter. It seemed as though her legs were about to give out with the way she held herself up.

"I don't know. I haven't met him," her mother said mildly. She reached above Eridan's head, brought down three plates, and handed them to him as Fef let out a tiny shocked sound.

"You—you _haven't met him_?!"

"Feferi, calm down," she said with a laugh. "Your sister is twenty-four years old. She can have a boyfriend without her old mom judging her every move. It could be good for her—Lord knows she didn't leave the house much for awhile there. At least she's doing _something_ besides fretting."

"Well, what's his name?"

"She hasn't told me."

Feferi closed her eyes and gave an annoyed whimper. After a moment, she sucked in a deep breath through her nose, exhaled, opened her eyes, and crossed her arms over her chest. "So if she wasn't leaving the house, how did she meet him?"

Eridan almost laughed at the serious expression on her face but quickly turned his head to keep her from seeing. He wasn't quite sure why she was freaking out, but it was funny to witness.

"She said they went to high school together. They reconnected through Facebook. Why are you so worried about your sister's well-being, anyway? She can take care of herself."

"I know, but... she's supposed to be here for you," Feferi said, practically whining.

"Be—Feferi, honey. I don't need my daughters to take care of me. I know you love me and you worry about me, but I am _also_ an adult. I'm going to be okay." She crossed the kitchen to the oven and set the timer, something Feferi had neglected to do. As soon as she had, she took Feferi's face in her hands and lightly kissed her forehead. "I don't want to keep you girls from having your own lives, okay? You deserve to be happy, just like your old mom, and I won't have _either_ of you clucking after me like a pair of hens. That's _my_ job, okay?"

Feferi sighed. "Okay. I just... a _month_? I had no idea."

"Well, you would if you came home more often," she said playfully. "She's been home the last two weeks—you could have asked her then."

"Well, last weekend, this butt over here had a class project to do," Feferi said with mock sharpness, gesturing to Eridan. "And the weekend before that, I was pretty sick. I did not want to leave for _anything_."

And the weekend before _that_, she'd had her own class project, but that hadn't stopped Eridan from going home. It had been awhile since they were home at the same time.

"I was just kidding, honey. But seriously, your sister will be fine. She's a big girl."

* * *

After they ate dinner, he and Feferi headed up to the bathroom with both boxes of hair dye in hand. Eridan stripped off his shirt and glasses and perched on the edge of the bathtub while Feferi donned the plastic gloves that came with the black dye and mixed the solution. Before she covered his hair with it, though, she smeared a generous amount of Vaseline across his hairline to keep his skin from staining. She had to keep pushing his bangs back to get at it because without gel, they always fell into his eyes. It was one of the reasons he always had product in his hair, besides his general dislike of haircuts. He knew he'd have to get one soon, though—it was getting a bit long by now.

"Hold still," she said, and began applying the dye to his roots.

He closed his eyes and tried to remain motionless, focusing on the soothing sensation of having his scalp rubbed. It was pretty nice, all things considered. He was very nearly lulled into a doze when it stopped and Feferi inspected nearly every strand of hair at the root. "Okay, you're all set for right now. Ten minutes and we can do the rest."

Once the ten minutes had passed, she put the rest of the dye on the already-black hair so the color would match. He waited another fifteen minutes, rinsed, put in the conditioner that came with the dye, and then perched once more on the edge of the bathtub. Now came the hard part.

Feferi switched her gloves, mixed up the bleach, and knelt in front of him. "Hold still," she instructed him again, as if he didn't already know by now. They'd done this almost two dozen times.

The bleach stung at his scalp as she applied it to the roots beneath the purple streak. He closed his eyes and held as still as possible, but his eyes still watered from the chemicals. He'd be much happier once this was all over.

The bleach had to set for thirty minutes before he could rinse it, but after that, it was easier. Feferi brushed in the purple, trying to keep it just to the area that she'd bleached, but she didn't have to be as careful as she did with the actual bleach—the purple wouldn't show up against the black. That had to stay on for another twenty-five minutes, and after he rinsed the last of the color out of his hair and rubbed more post-color conditioner through his hair, waited two minutes, and rinsed _that_ out, it was finally over. He toweled off his hair but didn't bother to blow-dry it again. He wasn't sure his hair could take much more abuse in one night. Still, when he got to look at his hair, he was happy with how it turned out. It was a decided improvement over a half-inch of roots showing.

He yawned. "What time did you wanna go to the beach tomorrow?"

She was sitting on the floor, her legs drawn up to her chest with her arms around them. "I want to leave by ten I think. We can pack some sandwiches and have lunch there."

"So leave my house at five, got it," he joked.

She playfully kicked at his leg. "Nah, we can just leave." She rested her head against her knees. "It'll be nice to actually be able to go to the beach again."

"We got beaches near school, you know."

"Yeah, but I can never get to them. The buses don't go out there so I have to ask you for a ride and you're almost always busy." She sighed. "It's not really an ideal situation."

"Hopefully it'll be warm enough."

"It will. I know it will."

* * *

He put his shirt and glasses back on and said goodnight to Feferi and her mom before he went back to his own house for the night. His parents were used to him coming home only after he'd exhausted his welcome at the Peixeses', and he didn't doubt that they'd see his car in the driveway tomorrow morning and know to make him breakfast. They always went to bed fairly early now though (his mother was well into her fifties and his dad was sixty-one; he'd been what his brother called a "happy accident"), so he didn't plan on seeing them tonight. It was just as well—he wouldn't be great company. He was tired from the drive and the whole day in general, and he had a lot on his mind anyway.

Sure enough, the house was dark when he pulled up. He parked and grabbed his duffel bag and backpack, went to the front door, and fitted his house key into the lock. The door opened smoothly and from across the hallway, he heard the beeping of the security system. He set his bags down, punched in the code ("ACCEPTED" flashed across the screen), and looked around the hall. Everything was just as he remembered it.

He tore a sheet of paper out of one of his notebooks and scrawled a note across it for his parents. _Mom and Dad, Got home safe. Went to bed. Didn't want to wake you. Wake me up at eight—Feferi wants to go to the beach tomorrow. —Eridan_

He picked up his bags again and ascended the stairs, creeping past his parents room and sliding his note under their door. No doubt his dad would find it in about four hours when he got up to visit the bathroom. He just hoped his dad wouldn't inadvertently wake him.

Cronus's old bedroom and adjoining bathroom separated his room from the master suite, but even if it hadn't, the Amporas had a penchant for soundproofing things. Soundproofing didn't do a whole lot when your older brother played his shitty records at their highest, most ear-splitting decibel, but it saved them both from a lot of childhood trauma where their parents were concerned. Cronus was of the opinion that they probably had about ten more brothers and sisters hiding somewhere, but Eridan sincerely hoped not. The two of them had been a handful as it was.

He changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed, exhaustion tugging at his body, but sleep wouldn't come. It had been a strange week, that was for sure. Monday and Wednesday and then today had been a lot to handle, and not the least of his thoughts revolved around Sollux. A good, genuine nemesis was pretty hard to find—most people were so damn concerned with being polite and well-liked that a real enemy was almost unheard-of. But everything about Sollux pissed him off from the first moment he got a good look at him. It was satisfying that the feeling seemed to be mutual—he'd pretty much proved that when he emptied that cup of soda over his head.

He laughed to himself at that. He supposed he would have to thank Terezi for making that comment about Sollux in the first place, the one about him being bisexual. It left him pretty much the perfect opening for his witty response.

Sol hadn't denied it, either. He'd actually confirmed it when he told Terezi he didn't want to be outed to strangers. That was... well, he didn't know what exactly it was, but he wondered. Sol was his age, after all. Eridan couldn't help wondering what his sexual experiences had been like. Had he needed to have sex with a guy to confirm it to himself, or had he just always known? What about with a girl? He had a pretty innate sense for picking virgins out of a crowd and Sollux didn't strike him as one, but he'd been wrong before. Still, he could see some pretty girl or boy groping at him in the dark one night while his parents slept on, completely oblivious. Or maybe it was the other way around, with Sol taking control because he already knew what he liked.

Unconsciously, Eridan licked his lips. Sollux was a skinny little bastard, but from what he'd seen of him, Eridan had no doubt that he was capable of dominating someone. The thought sent a thrill down his spine, but by the time he realized he was half-hard, he was already idly stroking himself. _What the Hell am I doing?!_

As if the thought couldn't stand being ignored, it forced its way back to the front of his mind and there was Sollux again, rutting against some faceless boy, and Eridan didn't care anymore. He could practically hear their moans ringing in his ears and see how badly Sol wanted to fuck him. A tiny whimper escaped his throat and he kept masturbating, not caring that he was thing about Sollux Captor and some guy, not caring about anything at all except those lush lips Sol had and those gorgeously mismatched eyes that would probably haunt him to his grave. "Oh, _fuck_..." he murmured, biting his lip as he came, a bit sooner than he expected.

The orgasm sent a wave of endorphins through him, but the moment was killed when he remembered that he was sticky with his own come and he'd just jerked off thinking about a guy. _There has to be something wrong with me_, he thought bitterly.

He cleaned himself up as best he could, decided he was going to take another shower in the morning (which he had been contemplating anyway), and rolled over. Even so, it was still another hour of tossing and turning before he finally fell asleep.

* * *

**Wherein Eridan starts getting the first inkling that he might not be 100% straight...**

**I'll just leave this here then.**


	19. Act 19

**I have no excuse for not writing this last night or today. No excuse but laziness and The Sims 3.**

**Many thanks to BlOo KiSsEs, LinkinPark X, thepeopleofthecrysis, Snookster, grimjaws, fangirl4you, Kerra-Chan, obsessed01616, and one guest named scone (who also gave me my 100th review BY CHEATING *wonk wonk*) for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

Sollux wanted desperately to ignore the knock on his door, but that would have been a terrible idea so he got up from his laptop to answer. He hovered by the door and paused; he couldn't help feeling like he was forgetting something. The knocking was persistent, though, so he finally gave up and opened the door.

Aradia bounded in, gave him a hug, and stepped back abruptly, looking him over. "Well, my motto is 'People who wear pants at home can't be trusted.' Glad to see I can trust you."

He looked down. _Fuck!_ He _had_ forgotten to put on pants. "In my defense, I wasn't expecting company," he grumbled, but she just ruffled his hair affectionately.

"It's fine, I'm just messing with you. But we didn't really get to hang out this week, so I figured I'd drop by. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she added with a grin.

"What could you conceivably be interrupting?" He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I don't know—you could have some hot girl that I don't know about squirreled away here."

He snorted with laughter. "I think you overestimate what constitutes my charm."

"Not at all!"

"Don't you have your own boyfriend to hang out with?"

She'd been heading to the sofa, but she whirled around. "He's not my boyfriend! Not yet, anyway," she said, blushing. "But we talk a lot... He's on Pesterchum."

"So's FF. She..." His voice trailed off. He wasn't quite sure how to tell her about what happened.

"Yes?" she cajoled. "She what?"

"Well, I talked to her after her swim practice yesterday. She told me she'd figure out what's up with ED, and she did."

Aradia blinked. "What the Hell did I miss?"

"I pranked him yesterday. With EQ's help."

"Okay, and what did you do?" She perched on the arm of the sofa, her eyes never leaving him as he leaned against the wall with a sigh.

"Wrapped his car in plastic and dish soap."

She laughed, doubling over and holding her sides. She managed to choke out, "Oh, my God!... How pissed-off was he?"

"Um. Not at all."

That shut her up. "What do you mean?"

"Like, he just really calmly took all the plastic off and threw it away. And here's the weirdest part. After he cleaned up the mess, he found where I was sitting and came over and leaned in real close and said, 'You can do better than that.' And then he just walked away."

Aradia looked intrigued. She gave him a mischievous smirk. "So how close _was_ he?"

"Like... sit."

She flopped backwards onto the cushion and turned to sit properly. "Okay?"

He leaned in so their faces were inches apart. "This close."

"Oh, wow, that is _really_ close," she laughed.

"Yeah."

Her grin went from mischievous to flat-out evil. "So, was it an instant full boner or were you just half-masting it?"

He opened and closed his mouth several times before he finally found words. "I can't believe you would ask me that."

"You're right, I'm sorry. It was a raging erection, of course."

He smacked his forehead so hard he nearly gave himself a concussion.

"I'm just kidding, Sollux, relax. But you can't honestly tell me you weren't at least a _little_ turned on, right? Like I bet he said it all quietly so you'd pretty much have to lean in closer to hear him, right?"

He hoped he wasn't blushing. "Yeah, pretty much." He shrugged. "It was a little hot, I guess." There was no way he could tell her he'd practically been drooling over Eridan's ass, though. He'd never hear the end of it.

She just laughed like she could tell what he was thinking and hopped off the sofa. "So you talked to Feferi?"

"Yeah. And she said that ED sees me as his rival or some shit like that and he wants me to prank him again."

"I see. He wants you to prove you're worthy to be his nemesis."

Sollux sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

"So do you want to?"

"Want to what?"

"Be his nemesis?"

He shrugged. "Hadn't really thought about it. It's a bit of a strange relationship, but the idea of being able to pull shit on someone who wants me to fuck with him is kind of cool."

"So you're basically okay with him being your hate-boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend with _any_ modifier."

"Not yet. But if he wants you to prank him again, it almost seems like he's hate-courting you."

Sollux closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. "Okay, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. I need to put on pants if we're going to continue this conversation—which I hope we won't."

"Like you've never had a boner around me before," she laughed.

"That wasn't my fault!" he called, heading to his bedroom.

Even with his sleeping medication, it had taken him hours to fall asleep the night before. Something had dug into the back of his brain and sunk its claws in, leaving him tossing and turning until almost midnight. He'd given up around eleven and played _The Sims 3_ until an hour later, when sleep had finally kicked in. His room was still in disarray, but he was able to find a clean pair of pants. After putting them on, he looked around his room and made a mental promise to clean it up later—he just didn't care right now.

He rubbed his left eye, half-convinced he could still feel the contact lens digging into his eyeball, but it was probably just a reaction to not wearing it like he usually did. He couldn't wait to get out of the habit of wearing it—if the glasses Equius and his brother were making for him were made correctly, he could wear them and not have anyone tell that he had mismatched eyes. It would be nice to not have to worry about that every day.

Aradia had turned the TV on when he returned to the living room. He mentally sighed with relief and sat down, grateful for the distraction. At least they wouldn't be returning to their conversation.

"So he wants you to prank him again. Any ideas?"

_Fuck._ "Not really. I have no idea where the one I had even came from. FF said if she thought of something, she'd let me know, though."

"Can she be trusted?"

"I think so. I mean, she didn't really want ED to prank me in the first place. I think she's counting on me thrashing his immature ass."

"Well, then, we have to think of a really good prank. We may not be able to do it on Monday, though."

"When were you thinking?"

"Late this week or early next week, probably. But first we actually have to _think_ of something."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

* * *

Eridan woke up to a sharp rapping on his door. He mumbled something incoherently from under his blanket.

"Want me to let you sleep?" his father called from the other side.

Eridan rolled over and fumbled for his phone. Eight o'clock, right on time. "No. Be down in a bit."

"Alright. I'm making French toast for breakfast if you're interested."

"Yeah. Sounds good."

He heard his father's footsteps retreating down the hallway and then down the stairs, and for a minute, he wondered why he felt so strange. There was a lingering sense of internalized disgust that he couldn't quite place until he remembered what he'd done the night before.

He let out a groan and buried his face in the pillow. _Fuck._ He wished he could scrub that particular memory from his mind.

Feeling more in need of a shower than he had moments ago, he threw off his blankets, rolled out of bed, put on his glasses, and stripped his sheets. At Cronus's apartment, he had to do his own laundry, but at home, his parents had a maid service that did all their laundry and most of their cleaning. The only staff his dad refused to get was a cook; he did all the cooking himself. Much like Feferi's mother, it was one of his talents.

He tossed his sheets into the laundry basket and went to the bathroom to shower. After a more abbreviated shower than he would have liked, he got dressed and headed downstairs.

Cinnamon seemed to fill the kitchen, but it was a welcome scent. It smelled like home. Not like Cronus's apartment with the stench of marijuana and cigarettes sunk into every surface. Home smelled clean, safe. He felt himself smiling slightly as he sat down across from his mother.

After a moment, she peered over the top of her newspaper, glasses flashing in the overhead light. "Which one of our sons is this?" she asked Mr. Ampora, but her tone was teasing and Eridan knew she was smiling.

"Offspring Unit 2.0," his father answered, flipping over three slices of French toast at once.

"The only one who _ever_ comes to see you," Eridan joked.

"Oh, _that_ one. Well, Offspring Unit 2.0, how is 1.0?"

That was always the first question she directed at him. They always asked about Cronus, as if inquiring after him would negate his absence. "He's fine. Same as usual."

"Still has a job?"

"As far as I know."

"Is he seeing anyone?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Has he contracted any life-threatening illnesses?"

"I don't think so."

"Gotten anyone pregnant?"

"Fuck, I hope not."

She swatted at him with her newspaper; he'd forgotten she had a thing about swearing. "Any other assorted financial, emotional, or physical issues not listed here that we might need to be aware of?"

"He's fine," Eridan repeated.

"Hear that?" she asked his dad. "Cronus is fine."

None of his answers had changed in the year and a half he'd been living with Cronus. Everything had stayed the same except for how long it had been since Cronus had been home. It was almost sad—he didn't even think they'd spoken since he left home. Eridan supposed he'd be in therapy for it later, but right now, it was just funny. Besides, he'd be able to afford the counseling in ten or fifteen years. "I'm tryin' to get him to eat better instead a' gettin' takeout every night. An' I'm tryin' to get him to quit smokin', but that's just 'cause I can't stand the smell," he added with a shrug.

"Well, hopefully he listens." His mother set down her newspaper and lifted a mug of coffee to her lips. She took a sip and said, "There's more in the coffeepot if you want some. You look like you need it."

He let out another yawn in spite of himself and nodded. "Yeah, definitely." He got up from the table and rummaged for a mug until his dad said slyly, "Since you're up, why don't you set the table?"

He nearly thunked his head on the counter. _Smooth, Mom. Very smooth._ The impulse to let out the worst obscenity he could think of was almost overwhelming, but all that he said was, "Curses!" Then he sucked in a deep breath, brought down a mug and three plates, and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Yeah, give me a second." He took a long drink from his mug, heedless of the heat, and set it back down on the counter before picking up the plates and setting the table. He went back for the silverware and another drink after that, and followed that with grabbing the butter and syrup. Once the table was all set, he sat back down, mug in hand.

"How's school going?" his mother asked when he was seated again.

"Fine. Just got an A last week on a Bio project I had." Which got him thinking about Karkat, which led right to Sollux. He wanted to hop off this train of thought as soon as possible.

"That's great! What about your photography class?"

"Aced everythin' so far. It's cake."

"Good. And Feferi's doing okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine."

Eridan's dad cut in, sliding two pieces of French toast on each plate before setting the pan down on a cool burner. "Isn't it going to be a little cold for the beach today?"

Eridan shrugged. "I probably won't be swimmin', but Fef could go out there in December and not care. I'll bring an extra hoodie for her, but I won't count on her wearin' it." He took a bite of the French toast and grinned. "This is the most amazin' thing I've eaten in two weeks. Apart from the lasagna last night," he added.

"Thanks, kiddo," his dad said. He reached out and affectionately ruffled Eridan's hair.

Eridan brushed his hair behind his ears and continued eating.

* * *

**I expected him to be at the beach at this point, but then his mom started asking questions...**

**So if this is 35 chapters, we've already reached the halfway point. But I have a feeling this is going to drag out longer than 35. It could be as many as 50 chapters. WE WILL SEE, NOW WON'T WE?!**


	20. Act 20

**I think this is my longest act yet. Yay! It kind of ran away with itself at the end. Also, next installment will be an intermission and Act 21! (This will probably be more than 35 acts OMFG).**

**Many thanks to obsessed01616, fangirl4you, LinkinPark X, Kerra-Chan, and two guests named scone and kab for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

When Eridan pulled up into Feferi's driveway, she was sitting on her front steps with a beach bag beside her and her goggles around her head as some kind of bizarre headband/crown combination. As soon as he started slowing, she grabbed her bag and bounded off the steps, yelling over her shoulder, "Bye, Mom! Be back later!" Eridan could see Ms. Peixes waving from a window while Feferi popped open the passenger door and climbed in. "Hey! How was your morning?"

"Pretty good."

"Your mom do the whole third degree thing about your brother?"

"Like always."

Fef giggled and dug around for something in her bag. "Nice to see _someone_ hasn't changed!" She pulled out a fuchsia-colored beach towel and unbuckled her seatbelt. She twisted around and draped the towel lengthwise over her seat, sat back on it, and grabbed a bottle of sunblock. "It's supposed to be really sunny today," she said by way of explanation.

"Well, thanks for puttin' down the towel." He didn't relish the thought of sunblock being smeared on his leather seats.

"Yep! I got your best interests at heart!"

He scoffed at that but didn't answer. Sometimes he wondered. He chanced a peek at her as she rubbed sunblock on her arms and neck, trying to decide if now might be a good time to tell her. It would be easy—_"Fef, I like you as more than friends, an' I was hopin' you felt the same."_ But the words stuck in his throat.

"Quit being a creeper," she said mildly.

_Maybe she knows already._ But if she did know, he couldn't tell how she felt about it. That by itself was enough to keep him silent; if he told her and she didn't like him back, she might not want to be friends with him anymore, and at this point, he would much rather stay quiet and stay her friend than lose her forever. Maybe it was better this way.

The beach was a good half an hour away, but considering it was halfway through October, there weren't that many other cars heading their way, and when they actually got to the beach, the parking lot was maybe a quarter full. In the summer, it would always be packed and they'd have to fight to get their surfboards past the throngs of people in the sand, but the waves right now sucked and all Feferi wanted to do was swim anyway. When they got out of the car, the air had a slight bite to it and a shiver spread across Eridan's skin, but Feferi didn't seem to notice the cold. She hoisted her beach bag over her shoulder, draped her towel around her neck, and awkwardly charged to the waterline, her mad dash impeded somewhat by the fuchsia-colored flip-flops she wore.

Eridan had chosen sneakers without socks. He knew there was no way he was making it through today without sand covering every inch of him, but that wouldn't be so bad if he stayed dry. If he got wet, though, the sand would stick to him and make his car a mess, and he wanted to avoid that if possible. He'd probably have to hose Fef off before he let her back into the car. Still, he flung his own towel around his neck like a scarf and followed her out into the sandy beyond, where she seemed determined to scope out the best place to set her belongings down.

She took one look at him and nearly collapsed with laughter. "You look like a tool! Take that off—it's embarrassing!"

"Embarrassin' you or me?" he asked, flinging the trailing end around his neck for emphasis. "I feel no embarrassment whatsoever." He stood up straight and put his hands on his hips, and the sight had her doubling over again.

"Oh, my _cod_, Eridan, please stop," she laughed, tears streaming down her face. She reached out to tug at his makeshift scarf, perhaps to unwind it from his neck, but he took a step back quickly and she lost her balance. Before he could even think to react, she'd pitched forward, and, with a shriek, faceplanted right into the sand.

For half a second, he wondered if she'd be mad for laughing, but he didn't have time to wonder for long because he almost fell over himself, crying with laughter. Feferi lay there for a few moments and from under the sand, he heard her groan before she finally lifted her head. His laughter had nearly died away by then and he struggled to contain himself. She was glaring at him with her face covered in sand apart from where her glasses had been (now stuck in the sand where she'd fallen) and sand stuck in her hair, and he lost it all over again. His legs simply gave out and he sat down hard in front of her, chest aching from laughter. She spat out a mouthful of sand at him and _that_ was finally enough to curb his giggles.

"_Glub_ off," she grumbled, rolling over and brushing off her knee-length skirt. That was how he knew she wasn't really angry—she'd used a fish pun instead of telling him to fuck off.

Eridan sucked in two deep breaths before unwinding the scarf from around his neck and using it to brush the sand from her hair. "That _was_ kind a' funny, you have to admit."

"I guess," she said grudgingly. She reached behind her for her glasses to inspect the damage. Fortunately, the glass wasn't cracked—the frames were a little bent, but that was easy to fix. She set them in her bag, laid out her beach towel, and shimmied out of her skirt and shirt. "There's an easier way to get the sand off," she pointed out, adjusting her goggles over her eyes. "I'll be back in a bit." She stood up and ran to the waterline, going under as soon as the water was deep enough.

He laid out his own towel and peeled off his shirt to use as a pillow. It was still cold, but now there were trees in between the sand and the parking lot to block the wind and he was right in the sun, so he didn't shiver. He took off his glasses and closed his eyes, but now that Feferi wasn't here anymore, there was nothing to distract him.

He didn't even want to think about Sollux, but his head was apparently in no mood to listen because he was the only thing Eridan could think about. _It didn't actually happen_, he told himself. _I dreamed it. It doesn't mean anything. And even if it did, he's a dick. I have _way_ better taste than Sol Captor._

He sighed without meaning to. No matter what he told himself, doubt lingered at the back of his mind. _It'll go away, though. Just ignore it and it'll go away. Besides, there's Fef._ But there wasn't. Not until he found the words to tell her what was really in his heart, but that might never happen. But there had to be _some_ reason neither of them had dated anyone else (his fling with Vriska had been a mistake, and Feferi didn't know about that, so as far as she was concerned, they'd both been single for the extent of their friendship). Was she waiting for him to make the first move or was she hoping he wouldn't? It was all so needlessly complicated, and he wished he didn't like her so much. If he cared a little less, it would be so much easier for him to tell her, and if she didn't return his feelings, he could walk away like it never mattered at all. But it did matter and he was afraid of what that meant.

He wished he could talk about it with his best friend, but she was the whole problem. It wasn't fair. He wasn't great at making friends, either, so it wasn't like he could randomly go up to someone else and spill his guts. When all was said and done, the only thing he could do was wait for a better time, for better words.

* * *

"Come on, when was the last time we actually _did_ something?" Aradia whined, tugging on Sollux's arm.

"Last Sunday."

"With _other people_," she continued in the same tone.

"Last Sunday," he repeated. "With TZ. You invited yourself over, remember?"

"Come on, it was her birthday on Thursday! You have to come! Everyone will be there!"

Sollux raised an eyebrow. "Who's 'everyone'?"

"Well, Terezi, for one. I think she invited your friend Karkat, and he's bringing a couple of people, and I asked Nepeta if she and Equius would come and I think she bullied him into saying yes. I invited Kanaya, too, so you have someone to keep you company in your misery! Come on, you're one of Terezi's best friends! You have to come along!"

Sollux closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll do it, but I won't like it."

"Trust me, neither will anyone else."

That was how Sollux found himself squished in the backseat of Equius's Suburban with Nepeta (who must have weighed all of about a hundred and twenty pounds) on his lap and Karkat squished (although not quietly) between him and John Egbert. Aradia and Rose Lalonde were next to Equius in the front seat, and Terezi was on her way to the same club as them with her sister and her sister's boyfriend. Dave Strider, Kanaya, and Tavros Nitram were also on their way in Gamzee Makara's tiny Focus (he was one of the other rich kids who was able to afford his own car). It promised to be a fun-filled night, and Sollux prayed it was over quickly.

It only got worse when Equius parked between Gamzee's purple car (not the same blinding purple shade as Eridan's BMW, but definitely a custom job) and the Jeep Rubicon that Terezi was climbing out of. She waved, grinning wickedly, and called, "Hey, guys!" She pointed to the two people who were also hopping out and added, "That's my sister Latula and her boyfriend Mituna!"

_No. Fuck, no. _FUCK_, no!_ He tried to tell himself that Terezi had _not_ just said "Mituna," but there he was, his mirror image waving at him like a loon and several people did a double take. "Can someone please take me home?" he grumbled, slouching in his seat so those gathered outside the cars couldn't see him.

Nepeta practically pounced on him. "He looks just like you!" she said excitedly.

"He should. He's my fucking twin."

Aradia had a hand over her mouth and she looked to be trying not to laugh. "I'm so sorry—I had no idea who Latula's boyfriend was!"

The rest of them piled out of the car and into the night air while Sollux stretched out on the backseat and flung his arm over his eyes. He didn't care if they left him in here all night—there was just too many people and one of them was his twin brother who he loved, he really did, but he didn't really _like_ the guy. It was not funny in the slightest.

The door at his head opened up and a pair of strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and started dragging. "Come on, fucktruck," Karkat snapped, "if I have to put up with the fucking impending jackassery, then so do you!"

"Fuck my life," he grumbled. "I don't know what you're all pissed about anyway—it's your fucking girlfriend's birthday party."

"She's not my girlfriend and I don't like your brother any more than you do. Jesus, you're both assholes, but at least you're not as much of an asswagon as he is."

Sollux groaned and allowed himself to be marched into the club, where the rest of the party was already assembled.

After they paid the cover charge, he had literally two seconds to breathe before he heard a war cry and, a moment later, someone threw themselves at him in a bone-breaking hug. "Sollux!" his twin cheered. "Good to see you again!"

"Hey." He reluctantly returned the hug as best he could, considering Mituna had his arms pinned to his sides, and wondered why everyone felt the need to attack-hug him. He glanced over his brother's shoulder to note the few people looking at them quizzically and disentangled himself from Mituna's hug. Once he caught his breath, he explained sullenly, "Mituna Captor, my brother."

"_Twin_ purrother!" Nepeta interjected happily.

_Oh, my God. That was terrible. _"Right. Naturally." Desperate for any way to get the attention off himself, he opened his arms in Terezi's direction and said, "Hey, happy birthday!"

_Success._ Almost immediately, she was mobbed by well-wishers, and Sollux was able to slink away.

Ten minutes later found him lingering on a couch next to the dance floor but well out of sight of anyone who might feel the need to accost him. He hoped everyone would be distracted by everyone else and not notice him—Mituna had his girlfriend and Terezi and Karkat would probably pretend not to be flirting all night and Tavros pretty much always had his arms around Gamzee and Aradia and Equius would most likely end up snuggled up in some corner before the night was over, so the odds of anyone noticing he was lurking far away seemed pretty slim.

Well, Nepeta might notice his absence, but he wasn't too worried about her. Her shipper heart was probably fluttering a mile a minute with all the couples and potential couples floating around.

In the meantime, he had to think of another new prank to pull on Eridan, preferably before the end of the weekend. Ampora's challenge would not go unmet—he refused to let the bastard win. The problem was, the good pranks he could play involved him having access to where he lived. He had no idea where Ampora parked that stupid BMW of his at night, much less have a key. He didn't want to fuck with the car again—repeating himself would be in bad form. It was also a fine line between clever and cruel when it came to tricks, and he didn't want to cross that line. He was in quite a bit of a quandary, so he let his mind wander, hoping something would come to him.

The club started filling up and he saw Aradia start dancing, oblivious to the fact that she was the only person on the dance floor. Equius watched her, visibly uncomfortable, but Sollux could tell he wanted to join her. Soon, Rose was tugging Kanaya to the dance floor as well, followed by a few people he didn't know and then Terezi and Karkat.

Someone sat down on the sofa next to him and he turned to look. Dave Strider was sitting there, his left ankle resting on his right knee, his sunglasses still on despite the dark of the club, and his phone out, reflecting in the sunglasses. Sollux wondered if he should say something, but decided against it. If Strider wanted a conversation, he'd start one. Still, he expected to see John Egbert trailing behind him—aside from at their apartment building, the two appeared to be inseparable.

"My brother's a bit of a dick, too," Dave said abruptly.

Sollux blinked. "Mituna's not bad."

"Neither is Dirk." Dave shrugged. "There's a personality clash there, though."

He nodded and settled back. "Not too far off." He looked at his hands for a moment. "Where's John?"

Dave let out a snort of laughter. "Creeping on that Nepeta chick, probably. I decided to leave him to it. She's got that huge fucking horse of a friend to watch her back, so if John does something stupid, he'll have whatever's coming to him."

Sollux grinned in spite of himself and glanced to where Equius had been standing, watching Aradia. He was gone now. He moved his gaze to the dance floor and ice flooded his veins.

He stood up, watching as Aradia smoothly extracted herself from the grip of some strange guy only to have him follow her. Kanaya left Rose to put herself between the stranger and Aradia and looked to be telling him to back off, but the guy grabbed her arm and yanked her to the side, out of his way.

Time seemed to slow down for Sollux. Without conscious direction, his feet took him to where the guy was getting closer to Aradia, and he must have been crazy because he grabbed him by the shirt, spun the guy to face him, and sank his fist right into his jaw.

He had a good five inches on this guy but maybe about ten pounds. Still, he'd put every ounce of strength behind the swing, and even if it didn't do any serious damage, it was enough to send a drunk scurrying into the corner, obviously thinking Aradia to be more trouble than she was worth.

A hand appeared on his arm and he turned and there was Aradia, looking shaken but otherwise unharmed. All of a sudden, time sped back up and he was hit by a wave of nausea. He left the dance floor, speeding up as he went, until he was running full-tilt out of the club, past Gamzee and Tavros and John and Nepeta and his fucking brother and Equius was following him and he was pretty sure Aradia was behind him too but now he was out of the door, turning right and sprinting down the sidewalk until he got to the side of the building. He braced his hand against the brick wall, legs trembling before finally giving out, and the next thing he knew, he was puking his guts out in a patch of grass next to the club.

_This is so fucking humiliating._ At least the night air was a welcome relief from the stifling club. Then Aradia was crouching in front of him, carefully avoiding the vomit, cupping his face in her hands. "Sollux. Sollux, look at me."

His eyes met hers.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

He nodded slowly. "I don't think I ever hit someone before in my life."

She chuckled softly. "You did fine. I'm glad he didn't try to hit you back. If he'd broken your nose, your pretty face would be ruined and then what would you be good for?"

A smile tugged at his mouth.

"I apologize," Equius's deep voice said from behind them. "I should have been watching for you."

"That's not your job." She turned back to Sollux. "Can you stand?" When he nodded, she helped him to his feet. "What I want to know is where the fucking bouncers were. They're the ones who are supposed to watch out for shit like that."

"Can we go home now? _Please_?" Sollux asked, well-aware that he was whining but not caring. His fist was throbbing and he wasn't convinced he hadn't broken his knuckles. His delicate hands were made for typing, not punching.

Aradia laughed softly. "Yeah, we can go. We should say goodbye first. Call a cab. I'll pay," she added. She kissed his cheek gently and let go of him. "I'd wait by the door if I were you."

While she was inside, he did as she bid and called a cab. It arrived fifteen minutes later, about ten seconds after Aradia said goodbye to everyone and kissed Equius full on the mouth. She hurried outside and herded Sollux into the cab, and it wasn't until the door closed next to her that he felt truly able to breathe again.

* * *

***lets out huge breath***

**Okay. I'm cool now.**

**Poor Sollux... he would totally be the guy who flies to defend their friends and then go into shock afterwards!**


	21. Intermission II Act 21

**It's time for some sleep. So... slightly more mature things contained herein? Nothing explicit, but um...yeah. (If you're a Homestuck, I assume you're a RoseMary shipper, so here, you get presents.)**

**Many thanks to fangirl4you, thepeopleofthecrysis, obsessed01616, BCTheEntity, BlOo KiSsEs, LinkinPark X, Kerra-Chan, TheShipperOfShips, scone, and Pesky for your reviews to the last act!**

**And now, as promised, Intermission II.**

* * *

_**INTERMISSION II**_

There were worse ways to wake up, Rose supposed, than with a pretty girl's head between your legs. She couldn't think of any off the top of her head (actually, she couldn't really think of anything right now), but that was because Kanaya's tongue seemed to be magic, and Rose wasn't about to complain.

Waking up in Kanaya's bed would have been a complete surprise to her the day before, too. When they left on their excursion to that ridiculous club Terezi wanted so much to go to, she hadn't anticipated actually wanting to dance with Kanaya, much less actively pulling her out to the dance floor. The other girl hadn't minded, though. It had allowed her to keep an eye on Aradia for all the good it ended up doing her. When that guy had forcibly shoved Kanaya away to get at Aradia, Rose nearly marched up to him and knocked his block off. Before she could, though, Sollux had appeared and did exactly what she'd planned on doing. The guy slunk off to a corner to lick his wounds, and suddenly Sollux was out of there like ninjas were after him, and Aradia was right behind him.

But Kanaya was ashen, so Rose led her to the side to make sure she was okay, away from the dance floor and toward the couch where Dave was sitting. He scooted over to make room for them.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked as softly as she could while still being heard over the pounding bass beat. She sat Kanaya down and brushed the other girl's short dark hair behind her ears.

After a moment of consideration, Kanaya nodded. "I am unharmed."

"There's a difference between 'okay' and 'unharmed.'"

Something akin to surprise flitted across Kanaya's face before she lowered her eyes to her knees. Restlessly, her hands smoothed out her skirt and she said, "I know."

Rose tilted her face back up, crouching down so their gazes were level. "Talk to me, Kan. What's wrong?"

"I thought he intended to hurt her," Kanaya said carefully. "I feared for her, and..."

"He _did_ intend to hurt her. You did fine. I thought he was about to hurt both of you."

"Sollux should not have had to—"

"No, and neither should you. Sollux is lucky that guy didn't hit him back. A more belligerent drunk would have beat him down. I think the guy was just an idiot, but it doesn't excuse him."

"I suppose harm could have come to my person as well, but it was Aradia I was most concerned for. She—oh." Kanaya stood up quickly, and Rose turned to look and there was Aradia herself, standing there looking sheepish.

"Sollux wants to go home, so I'm taking him back. I just wanted to say goodbye to everyone."

"Is he okay?" Rose asked.

"He's..." She gave a nervous chuckle. "He lost his dinner outside, for what it's worth. Apparently, he's never hit anyone before. But he'll recover. I think his nerves are a little frayed right now." She turned to Kanaya and pulled her into a tight hug. "You okay?"

"Yes. I'll be fine. I have Rose with me, after all," she said with the ghost of a smile on her face, and for some reason, Kanaya's words filled her with an unwarranted sense of pleasure.

"Good." She let go of Kanaya and gave Rose a quick hug as well. "Keep the creepers away from her, will you?"

"I can oblige," she said, smiling.

Aradia spared an awkward hug for Dave as well before hurrying back to the front of the club, and Kanaya sat back down. Rose squished in between her and Dave, who grumbled at them but ruffled Rose's hair. They'd been friends for far too long to truly care about a bit of a personal space violation.

After that, the whole mood seemed to deflate, even after Terezi and the other remaining party-goers found out where the three of them were lurking. Terezi dragged Karkat back out to the dance floor but they were both terrible (Rose had no idea what Karkat's excuse was, but Terezi's blindness was a good one for her), and Nepeta danced exuberantly by herself for a good ten minutes before John went out to join her, and later Equius. Rose lost track of most of the others, occasionally seeing them swirling around the dance floor amid the throngs of strangers, but Dave didn't get up once and Kanaya's desire to dance had left her. Rose was unwilling to leave her, so she stayed there, wedged between her and Dave.

After nearly a half an hour, she realized that she'd somehow shifted and was half-sitting in Kanaya's lap (a ridiculous sight, considering she was at least four inches taller than Kanaya) and the other girl had her arm wrapped loosely around her waist. It was comforting, though, in a way that didn't make sense because Kanaya was the one who'd needed the soothing, not her. But she felt a light flush of happiness at it either way.

If Dave noticed when Rose slid full into Kanaya's lap, he didn't say anything. He kept his sunglasses on, which she expected and understood even if she didn't like it, and she couldn't see his eyes (which was the point, after all), but his thumb kept moving along the screen of his iPhone as he texted and surfed the internet. There was a mystery there; Dave Strider was an enigma that, even after seven years of friendship, she hadn't been able to solve yet.

He got up from the couch, pressing his phone to his ear and yelling, "_WHAT?!"_ to be heard over the cacophony, right around the time both of Kanaya's arms ended up around her, and Rose found that she was minding the physical contact less and less, not that she had minded it much in the first place.

It moved faster after that, with light kisses being trailed down the back of her neck and fingertips caressing her arms until Rose turned around and kissed her properly. Even though she felt herself trembling slightly, she was smiling—they both were—and Rose wound her arms around Kanaya.

When asked, Rose had always said that based solely on her history, she was straight, but she'd never dismissed the possibility that she could be bisexual. She'd simply never found a girl she was attracted to, not until Kanaya. The really strange thing was that they hadn't even met a week ago and Kanaya got her heart racing like a lovestruck fourteen-year-old. It was a good feeling, though, and nice considering she'd never been that lovestruck fourteen-year-old.

Later, when Tavros told them he and Gamzee were leaving, Rose suggested they go along since neither of them appeared to be heading back out to dance, and Gamzee came by to offer Dave a ride home, too. Dave grumbled something about his brother needing the apartment to himself and Gamzee just went right along with, "No problem, man! Karkat won't mind if you crash at our place!"

Dave seemed okay with the offer, so the five of them piled into Gamzee's Focus while Kanaya ground her teeth. Rose wasn't sure why, but she didn't like Gamzee all that much. "I don't have a reason," she'd said earlier. "Just... fuck that guy." Gamzee seemed nice enough to her, if a little too cheerful for her liking and with a shitty taste in music, but Rose let it go because she didn't honestly care too much, especially not when she and Kanaya huddled into the back seat next to Dave (he, Tavros, and Gamzee seemed to be pointedly ignoring them) and kept their hands all over each other for the entirety of the ride to Kanaya's apartment building. Rose knew they were being obnoxious, but that was one more thing she really couldn't have cared less about.

By the time they ended up falling asleep, naked and wrapped in blankets and each other's arms, Rose was pretty sure she'd stopped caring about anything but the feel of Kanaya pressed against her, and for the first time in recent memory, she felt well and truly happy.

_**END INTERMISSION II.**_

* * *

_**ACT 21**_

Aradia left his apartment around two-thirty, leaving him with a sore right hand and a mug of tea drowned in honey. He held his computer mouse gingerly, cradling his mug in his left hand, and glanced every so often at his red, slightly-swollen knuckles. They probably weren't broken, but they'd be bruised in the morning, and he flexed his fingers to test them. The pain wasn't terrible—if he focused on something else, it went away completely—but he'd iced them for a few hours before Aradia went home.

He'd offered to let her stay the night (it wouldn't have been the first time she slept over), but she said goodbye and left all the same. He wondered if Equius was waiting for her but didn't ask. She'd done more for him than any of his other friends, so she deserved the time she earned away from him.

He scoured the internet for useful pranks to play on annoying hipster douche-wagons (that had actually been his search entry on Google: "pranks to play on annoying hipster douche-wagons") and, aside from remotely erasing music off iPhones (which Eridan didn't have—he apparently found a Blackberry to be more appropriate), had seen nothing useful. Sollux would apparently have to rely on his own wits, such as they were, to devise an original prank. It promised to be a pain, though, considering he'd never used his powers for evil, only good (his own good, anyway). Finally, he gave up for the night, closed the lid of his laptop, and got ready for bed.

Adrenaline (and what little caffeine was in his tea), however, had other plans for him. He lay awake in the dark, trying to ignore the dull pounding in his knuckles. The jitters he'd had after punching that guy had subsided by now, and in place of that shaky feeling was a small sense of pride. He didn't know if that counted as a "first fight," but it emboldened him. He might not stand up for himself very often, but he could sure as Hell stand up for his friends when he needed to.

He'd think of something. He had to.

He was nearly asleep when his phone buzzed loudly on the nightstand. Something told him to ignore it, but he ignored _that_ idea and checked it anyway, and then immediately wished he hadn't. It was Mituna texting him.

_H3Y 8R00 WH475 G01NG G0N?!_

"Oh, Jesus," Sollux muttered. Karkat thought _his_ typing quirk was bad, but he'd never seen Mituna's. He could barely decode the haphazardly cobbled-together internet substitutions and he'd been reading it for six years. It was even worse when he was half-asleep as it was.

_ju2t about two fall a2leep actually_, he answered. He hoped that would be the end of it, that Mituna would take the hint and leave him alone for another two months, but it was a futile hope.

_0H M44N 50RR13 8R0 8U7 DUUD33 15 YUR H4ND 0KY 44R44D14 W45 54YNG H0W U0U PUNCH43D 50M3 GUY 1N 7H3 F4C3._

Sollux groaned and rubbed his eyes. He was pretty sure what he'd said was "Oh man sorry bro but dude is your hand okay Aradia was saying how you punched some guy in the face" which, aside from being more run-on sentence than he could handle (and apart from being grammatically incorrect, which never bothered him before but just pissed him off when it was Mituna), was just ridiculous. If he really cared, he could have disentangled himself from his girlfriend (_Latula_, he reminded himself, Terezi's older sister) long enough to ask him to his face. Although that might have ended with Sollux actually breaking his knuckles against his brother's nose, so maybe it was all for the best.

_iim fiine iill talk two you later_

_Y34H 5UR3 H7H1NG 8R00 H4H4H4 G00DD N1GH7 M4N._

Thank God that was over with. He never nearly threw his phone against the wall in frustration, but he knew he'd only regret it in the morning. Instead, he turned it on silent, flipped it over, and turned away from it. Maybe _now_ he could finally get some sleep.

* * *

The ride back from the club was a good deal less crowded than the ride _to_ the club. Nepeta sat up front next to Equius, but for all the actually sitting she did there (almost none), she might as well have been in the back seat. The whole time, she perched on her knees facing backwards with her arms wrapped around the head rest and her chin on top. John sat behind her and Karkat was behind Equius, but almost all of Nepeta's attention had been focused on John.

"I had a _purr_fectly wonderful time tonight! What about you?" she asked cheerily. If she had a tail, it would have been swishing back and forth. Of course, if she had a tail, Equius probably would have yanked her back into her seat properly, so maybe it was better if she didn't.

"Uh, yeah, it was great!" John said with a grin.

Karkat rolled his eyes and slouched in his seat. He'd shared a class with Nepeta once, their first semester of what counted as their freshman year at this stupid community college (a year ago now) and he'd liked her well enough until she started calling him "Karkitty" and being generally weird. Apparently, though, John thought the cat pun thing was adorable and it didn't bother him at all. Then again, maybe he should have expected as much from John Egbert. The guy was a bit of a spaz, especially if Vriska had stomped on his heart the way Strider said she did. But Nepeta seemed genuinely nice, cat puns aside, and maybe John was at a point where he could appreciate that.

He just wasn't sure she knew just what she was getting into.

"Nepeta, please return to your seat," Equius said firmly, tugging on the olive-green jacket she wore.

"Shoosh!" She batted his hand away and kept facing backwards. "What classes are you taking, Mr. Eg_purr_t?"

Karkat looked at his window and wondered if he could roll it down and jump out before Equius realized what he was doing. Probably not, he decided. The guy seemed pretty observant. Plus there was no guarantee he'd survive a tumble from a Suburban at fifty miles an hour. Not that he'd be completely opposed to that prospect at this point. He watched the landscape whizzing by and sat back, deciding the mess wouldn't be worth it.

"Well, I'm taking a Government class with Mr. Vantas here and our mutual friend Dave Strider—he was at the shindig tonight, the blond guy? And I'm also in Organic Chemistry and Economics... oh! And this one class Dave showed me, it's ridiculous, he made me take it but it's awesome. It's called 'The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur.'"

The whole SUV went completely silent. Even Karkat was a bit stunned with that response. Somehow, neither John nor Dave had _ever_ mentioned taking this class, much less that it even existed.

A choked laugh sounded loud in the car and Karkat realized it was Equius fighting not to lose control of the steering wheel. After a few seconds of strangled laughter, he seemed to regain control of himself. "I had no idea the school offered such a course," he said once he'd regained the ability to speak.

"Yep!" John said. "Dave wanted to take it just to see what it was about. He thought it would basically be a joke, and he told me to take it with him since I needed another three credits this semester anyway. It's actually pretty deep, though! It's one of those weird Friday classes but yeah, they take it really seriously, and the teacher is a diehard Tupac fan! It's really cool!"

Nepeta had practically buried her face in the leather of the head rest, leaving only her eyes peeking out along with the blue cat-face hat still jammed over her hair. She pushed up her sleeves to keep them from covering her hands but they just fell back to her fingertips. Karkat remembered that she'd been wearing the same jacket a year ago. Why was she still wearing such an ill-fitting garment? It was long all over, not just at her sleeves; the back of it hung almost to her knees. It seemed a little excessive, but then again, Karkat didn't really have room to talk. His wardrobe consisted almost entirely of jeans and gray and black long-sleeved T-shirts. He didn't really do color.

"So is it hard?" Nepeta asked, moving her mouth so she could be heard.

"A little, but it's more fun than hard. Like it doesn't even seem like class work! There's a lot of group discussion, too, but Dave just sits to the side and doesn't say anything."

"I bet if he found the right _purr_son, he would open up!"

"Nepeta," Equius said again with more of a warning in his voice than before.

"Shoosh!" she said again, swatting at his head now.

Karkat very nearly asked, but decided he was probably better off not knowing. Knowing her, it could all very well mean something crazy, and he didn't have the fortitude to handle that right now.

When at last Equius finally dropped him and John off in front of his apartment building, Nepeta darted out of the car so fast Karkat wasn't what sure what happened until the door was open. She was nice as she said good night to him, but she gave John a big hug before dashing right back into Equius's monster of a vehicle and waving at them. Equius waited until they were in the building before he pulled away from the curb.

"She seemed nice," John said with a grin.

"Yeah, if you like batshit insane," Karkat grumbled.

"Don't be such a sourpuss!"

Karkat blinked at him for a second. "Oh, my _God_, Egbert, do you even listen to yourself half the fucking time or do you just say whatever the fuck pops into that shrunken little ketchup cup you call a brain?!"

One thing he could say for John, the one thing he and Gamzee had in common, was that they could take verbal abuse with a smile. Gamzee was _always_ like that, but John had to be in a good mood (which he usually was, especially right now). He just laughed and gave Karkat an affectionate noogie, which displeased him to no end. He was shorter than everyone else he knew except Nepeta and Tavros—he didn't need that fact rubbed in his face.

When they got up to Karkat's apartment, John yawning and rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses (he'd invited himself over for the weekend and was apparently ready to crash for the night), he was surprised to see Dave there as well, sprawled out on the sofa with his headphones firmly over his ears. The reason for that came a moment later as he registered the rhythmic thumping and faint moans coming from Gamzee's room. Karkat visibly flinched.

Dave waved idly, his phone screen still reflected in his glasses, and lifted one headphone away from his ear. "Are they still—? Never mind. I can hear them."

Karkat closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "Jesus fucking Christ on a fish. Come on." He unlocked his own bedroom door, mercifully across the living room from Gamzee's, and pointed Egbert and Strider inside before slamming the door behind him. It didn't do much to block out the noises, but when John put on _Face/Off_, the sounds of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta's combined shitty dialogue was enough to drown out the sounds still coming from Gamzee's room.

* * *

**I promise not to inflict any more Mituna text on you if I can help it. That shit was a massive pain in the ass to write.**

**Also, yes, "The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur" is apparently a legit class that one of my Tumblr followers took in college, and I decided it had Dave written all over it.**

**Also I think Vriska will finally appear in either Act 22 or 23.**


	22. Act 22

**Wherein my only commentary is as follows: if you leave me a review as a guest, I cannot respond to them. Keep that in mind if you're going to ask questions (and my author's notes are boring and ungainly as they currently stand, so I won't answer questions in them unless it's something several people have asked me). One alternative: go to my main author's page and follow the link to my Tumblr. I have anon enabled, so if you have a question, you can ask me there!**

**Many thanks to Pesky, thepeopleofthecrysis, BlOo KiSsEs, LinkinPark X, and YaoiOverlord for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

Eridan was able to fall asleep almost immediately when he got home. Feferi had convinced him to swim finally and, just like her, he'd always felt at home in the water. It was nearly six before they finally splashed out, gathered up their belongings, and went to the public showers to rinse the sand off themselves. They stopped for veggie burgers at one of the funky niche cafés near the boardwalk and lingered so long the sun set by the time they left. They were both yawning when Eridan dropped her off, but he came inside to say good night to her and Ms. Peixes before heading home himself. Just like the night before, his parents were asleep when he finally got home, but he left another note for them, requesting to be woken up at eight-thirty. He and Fef would probably start the trip back to school around eleven or twelve, but that left them plenty of time—it was only a three-hour trip depending on traffic.

His dad knocked on the door at exactly eight-thirty, and he took a glorious half an hour for his shower. When he got out, there was a text message on his phone from Feferi. _)(-EY -ERIDAN! Look, I'm taking my own car back to sc)(ool so it'll be easier for me to get around, so you don't need to worry about driving me back today! I'll see you at sc)(ool tomorrow!_

And all of a sudden, his cheerful mood vanished. It felt like he'd taken a baseball bat to the ribs. He sat down hard on the edge of his bed, his towel still wrapped around his waist, and wondered what to say in reply. It seemed like such a casual dismissal, but she'd never mentioned being bothered by always relying on him for a ride, and he'd never complained about it, either. They were friends. That's what friends were for.

Maybe she hadn't quite forgiven him for the petty war he was waging with Sollux. Sure, she'd seemed not to mind yesterday or the day before, but that didn't mean all was forgotten. _Or maybe she just really wants to have her own car with her, since she's paying insurance on it still. Might as well drive it, after all_, the logical part of him said coolly. She had that right, of course—it was her car, and if she wanted to drive it, he wasn't going to stop her. Still, he couldn't stop the question _Did I do something wrong?_ from running around in his head.

He forced himself to type out _OK drivve safe_ and set his phone aside. He still had to get dressed and fix his hair and eat and... Well, after he packed, he'd be ready to go. He didn't need to wait for Fef or anything. He would be back at Cronus's apartment by one. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Eridan was quiet during breakfast, answering questions when his parents asked him anything but not volunteering any information. He was only able to choke down half a pancake (not because of the taste, because they were delicious—his dad was an amazing cook) but because his stomach was in knots and he struggled to get any food past the lump that had somehow formed in his throat. His father gave him a quizzical look but didn't ask, for which he was grateful. He was being childish, he knew—it probably had nothing to do with him, after all; Feferi just wanted her freedom—but he couldn't help feeling like he was being slowly but surely cast aside. But for _who_? Generally, if someone was planning on getting rid of something (a car, a phone, a best friend), they had a replacement in mind. The idea that she was planning on exchanging him for someone else made him feel like a fish being gutted. She was his only friend. If she left him, he wouldn't have anyone left.

He said a hasty goodbye to his parents, his duffel bag slung over his shoulder already, and went to his car. He hesitated a moment before setting his bag on the seat next to him. It was strange to remember that Feferi wouldn't be riding with him. She always had before, and again, he found himself wondering what the true cause was. Did she really just want her own car, or was it something else?

He would have agonized over it on the ride back but he chose to ignore it instead, turning up Skrillex as loud as his speakers would allow. Skrillex was one of his guilty pleasures, mindless music to just forget everything, but he would privately admit that the man was a genius. He just wouldn't say it to anyone else.

* * *

"Hey, daddy-o!" Cronus said the moment Eridan opened the door. He waved from the couch, a stoned smile on his face and the scent of weed distinctly in the air. Eridan would have to douse his clothes in Febreeze so he didn't arrive at school tomorrow reeking like a drug dealer.

"Hey," he mumbled back.

"You're back early," his brother observed.

"Yeah, well, Fef took her own car back," he explained. "I didn't have to drop her off."

"Hey, if it works."

Eridan closed his eyes and silently cursed his brother to the depths of greaser Hell. He pretended Cronus hadn't said anything (he was probably so high he'd forget about it in a few minutes, anyway) and went to his room, taking care to slam the door behind him.

He dropped his bag on his floor and flopped onto his bed. He stared at the spot near the window where his fish tank would go, wondering if it would be a wise idea to bring other living beings into this sorry excuse of a household. For a moment, he considered asking Cronus if he could be trusted around pets as low-maintenance as fish but decided against it. If Cronus never knew the fish were here, he could never go out of his way to kill them.

Not that he expected he would, but he'd been known to inadvertently do stupid things.

Maybe he could go later this week and get some fish. Fish would be soothing. They wouldn't be able to take Fef's place—nothing and no one could possibly hope to do that—but they would distract him, and staring at fish swimming around seemed like a good way to calm him down.

His stomach gave a loud growl and he gave it a glare before he dug his phone out of his pocket. He had Alberto's Pizza on speed dial and he had his order memorized by now—a medium veggie pizza with extra cheese. He was only a vegan around Feferi—when she wasn't around, he was just a vegetarian, and right now, he felt like indulging in some cheese.

He was told his pizza would arrive in thirty minutes, so he sat back to wait.

* * *

A high-pitched beep sounded from the intercom next to Sollux's door, but for a second, he wasn't sure he'd actually heard the thing. No one had ever used it before (except Aradia the one time she'd left her key at his place), so he had no idea who could be using it now. Unsure, he set his laptop on the couch next to him, got up, and stared at the intercom until it beeped again. He sprinted over to hit the talk button. "Hello?" he panted.

"Sollux?" That voice sounded familiar but he couldn't place it.

"Who's that?" he asked cautiously.

"Equius. Zahhak," he added, as if Sollux might know another Equius.

"Yeah. Okay. Naturally." He let go of the talk button for a minute until the obvious question came to mind. "How did you know where I live?"

The line was silent for a moment until Equius sheepishly admitted, "Aradia told me."

"You sleep with her yet?" He smirked and waited for the answer. He could very easily imagine the other boy spluttering as he tried to think of a response. Whether yes or no, Equius was probably flustered.

"No," he said finally, the embarrassment evident in his voice. "We have not had car—"

"Okay, yeah, that's good, whatever," Sollux said, cutting him off quickly. The last thing he wanted to hear was Equius finishing that sentence. "Thanks for the honesty. And if you're lying, AA's pretty bad at keeping secrets like that."

There was another terse silence before Sollux decided he'd let Equius suffer long enough. He didn't always fuck with people, but when he did, he was as deadpan as possible. "What do you need?"

"I brought your glasses."

He blinked. "Oh. Alright, I'll buzz you in." He held down the unlock button for a solid five seconds, which he assumed would be ample time for Equius to get to the door. For a few minutes, he stood there awkwardly, wondering what he should do and if it would be worth it to go back to his computer in the interim, but before he could decide, there was a knock on his door. He peered through the hole in his door even though it could only be Equius and ended up with an eyeful of the other boy's pectorals for his troubles. Until Sollux had met him, he hadn't known anyone taller than him. The only ones who came close were Gamzee and Aradia, both of whom were an even six feet tall. Equius towered over them all though. It was refreshing for Sollux, though.

He opened the door and looked up to meet the lenses of Equius's sunglasses. They were pretty badly scratched, but Sollux didn't think he'd ever seen him _not_ wearing them. He wondered if he, like Dave, was hiding something. Then again, considering the glasses Equius was wordlessly handing over to him, he didn't have much room to talk.

He'd left the brown contact lens out today since it was Sunday and he planned on staying in all day, and now he was glad he had. He hooked his glasses on his shirt and slid the new ones over his eyes. A blue tint on the left lens and red on the right mixed his field of vision into a strangely purple hue. The prescription strength seemed about right, if a tiny bit strong—Equius had asked him on Friday for the specifics—and they fit well, considering they'd been made by amateurs. He turned around to stare at the far wall and nodded. He could clearly make out the lone picture on the wall. He'd get used to the strength and the color. He turned back to Equius. "So. Can you tell my eyes are two different colors?"

Equius leaned in for a moment before he seemed to go pale. "I... one moment." His fingers shook slightly as he slid his glasses down the bridge of his nose, just a fraction of an inch, but it was enough for Sollux to see why he hid his own eyes.

The whites of his eyes were slightly yellow, a symptom of jaundice that he'd seen in other people, but more than that, probably the real reason for the sunglasses, was that despite having skin almost as dark as his hair, his irises were almost iridescently blue. Equius probably didn't like people staring, although there was plenty for them to stare at even without factoring in his eyes. It was something Sollux completely understood.

"No," Equius said finally, pushing his glasses back up to hide his eyes again. "The colors make it impossible to see the difference."

"Which is the point." Sollux smiled. "You and your brother did a great job on these."

Equius straightened up to his full height, and there may have even been a momentary flicker of pride across his face. "Thank you. It was an enjoyable project." He paused for a moment. "They suit you well."

"Yeah?" He wished he had a mirror so he could check, but the closest one was in his bathroom.

"Yes." Equius subtly turned his head toward the elevator. He seemed to be deciding whether or not to ask a question, so Sollux shoved him into it.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I... I merely wondered... If I were to pursue a relationship with Aradia... that is, if she would be receptive to the suggestion... would..." He seemed to be fighting for words, and Sollux considered letting him flounder, but he knew where Equius was going and it didn't seem fair to watch him flail.

"Would I be okay with it?" he asked.

"Y-yes."

Sollux shrugged. "It's her life, EQ. As long as she's happy, that's what matters. She doesn't need my permission to date someone if she wants to. And for what it's worth, you seem like a halfway decent guy."

Equius appeared visibly relieved. "Thank you. I... I will see you at school tomorrow, I'm certain."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

The other boy strode down the hallway, his footsteps pounding even with the thick carpet and his long legs taking him to the elevator in record time. Sollux closed the door and readjusted his glasses before curiosity got the better of him and he nearly sprinted to the bathroom mirror to check them out.

Everything was awash in a sea of purple, but he found that he liked it. Even though he was looking at his eyes through what was essentially two layers of lenses, he found that Equius hadn't been lying—the two different-colored tints disguised his mismatched eyes well.

He grinned. Tomorrow might be more interesting than he thought.

* * *

**Okay, Vriska for sure in the next chapter!**

**Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect an update tomorrow. My classmates are planning on doing this class dinner at a brewhouse and that'll take up all of my evening tomorrow, but hopefully I'll be able to get something up on Thursday night (no promises, since I'll be packing to leave on Friday), and my flight arrives in San Diego very very late on Friday night, so the next update could be Saturday. Until then, thanks for reading and for your support!**


	23. Act 23

**In which the huge spider8itch. Also I didn't go to the dinner thing last night but I felt like being lazy and figuring out why my Sims 3 games keep freezing at 10:00pm on the first Tuesday of every game.**

**Many thanks to Fabylou55, YaoiOverlord, LinkinPark X, thepeopleofthecrysis, Kerra-Chan, BlOo KiSsEs, obsessed01616, and Heki564 (especially! Both for details for Sollux's glasses and a last-minute prank idea!) for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

When Sollux's alarm went off the next morning, he couldn't figure out why he felt a strange and unsettling contentedness. He'd never actively dreaded going to school, but he also hadn't really looked forward to it. He fumbled for his glasses, and then he remembered. A smile broke across his face.

"Well, hello there," he said with a stupid grin, sliding on his red-and-blue glasses.

He showered and shaved quickly and dressed in black jeans, a shirt that was blue on the left ride and red on the right, his mismatched shoes, and a yellow zip-up hoodie. His anticipation toward getting to school had actually left room in his stomach for breakfast, so, having finished up the leftover pizza over the weekend, he wolfed down a bowl of Lucky Charms and headed out the door. He hit the button for the elevator and put his ear buds in. The doors slid open as he scrolled through his iPod, trying to decide what to listen to, and he heard someone say, "Whoa."

Sollux looked up from the screen. "Hey, Dave."

"Nice glasses," Dave Strider said with what almost passed for a smile on his face. His own headphones were looped around his neck and something that sounded like Skrillex was pumping out of them.

"Thanks." Sollux opted for Alkaline Trio as the doors closed in front of him.

He didn't think Dave continued talking to him, probably taking the hint that headphones on meant world off. Even though Dave seemed to be Karkat's friend too, he didn't have his annoying habit of talking to someone who clearly wasn't paying attention. It was a nice change of pace.

* * *

– –_alkalineTwisted began pestering caligulasAquarium– –_

_AT: Good morning!_

_CA: uh_

_CA: do i knoww you_

_AT: Umm I hope so! We had a class together last semester!_

_AT: This is Eridan, right?_

_CA: uh_

_CA: yeah_

_CA: wwho are you_

_CA: wwhat class did we havve together_

_AT: Political science. I know it was ridiculously boring :D_

_AT: I'm Jane. I got your pesterchum handle from Feferi_

_CA: jane? jane crocker_

_AT: No not her XC I guess you don't remember me_

_CA: no not really_

_CA: uh_

_CA: so wwhat did you wwant_

_CA: cause gettin my handle from fef is all kinds a creepy_

_AT: Yeah, I know, sorry!_

_AT: I wanted to talk but since you don't remember me, that's kind of pointless so I'll just let you go_

_CA: wwell_

_CA: it just came out a the blue an all_

_CA: some wweird things havve been goin on lately_

_AT: Such as?_

_AT: I mean, if you don't mind me asking_

_CA: long story_

_CA: no offense but im not convvinced this isnt some elaborate prank_

_AT: Oh okay_

_AT: Alright well at least I know_

_AT: Have a good day_

– –_alkalineTwisted ceased pestering caligulasAquarium– –_

_CA: wwait_

_CA: wwhat_

* * *

Eridan looked over the pesterlog and frowned. Something about it didn't seem right but this Jane had given up really easily instead of trying to convince him of her authenticity. If it was a prank, he figured the culprit (he suspected Sollux) would keep trying to talk to him, but that hadn't happened. _Hmm._ Well, he knew he had to get right to the bottom of this, so he sent Feferi a text. _hey fef does sol havve a pesterchum account_

_Yep! W)(y, planning on stalking )(im? *wink wink* I can't do a winking face wit)( my smiley so t)(at will )(ave to do_

_no not evven. wwhats his handle_

_TwinArmageddons_

Eridan bit his lip. _TA._ "Jane"'s had been AT. He didn't like the similarity. It was too suspicious, and besides, he didn't think Sollux would have been stupid enough to use his own actual handle for a prank like this. But now he knew Sollux's handle.

* * *

– –_caligulasAquarium began pestering twinArmageddons– –_

_CA: hey fuck you asshole_

_TA: who'2 thii2?_

_CA: like you dont knoww_

_TA: no ii don't 2o you can fuck off_

– –_twinArmageddons blocked caligulasAquarium– – _

_CA: wwait_

_CA: wwhat_

* * *

He furrowed his brow in confusion. If "Jane" really was Sollux, he was going all-out for this prank. If he wasn't... _hey fef did you givve my handle to some chick named jane_

_Yea)(, s)(e was in our Political Science class last semester! I can't remember )(er last name but s)(e was really nice. W)(y, did s)(e pester you?_

_yeah just out a the blue all random an shit. you could a warned me_

_SORRY! It just slipped my mind!_

He rolled his eyes and lifted his Thermos to his mouth. The coffee was still hot, but he finished it anyway. _one last question. if sol wwas prankin me an you kneww, wwould you tell me?_

_Of course I would! I've never lied to you before, )(ave I?_

No, she hadn't, but he'd lied to her before, so he figured he was about due for some like treatment. He left his Thermos in the car, reached across the seat for his bag, and headed inside the cafeteria building.

* * *

"How's your hand?" Aradia asked, tugging Sollux's phone out of his hand and grabbing him by the wrists.

"I'm fine," Sollux said, but didn't pull his hand back.

"Knuckles still look a little swollen."

"I'm _fine_," he repeated. "Where's KN?"

"Kanaya? I'm not sure." Aradia glanced at the other seats around their table; they were all empty save the ones she and Sollux occupied. "If they start hurting, go to the clinic."

"Fuck me sideways, AA, I'm _fine_."

She let go of his hand as his phone buzzed on the table. He picked it up. "Pesterchum again."

"Who is it?"

"caligulasAquarium." A small smirk crossed his face. "That would be ED."

"Eridan's pestering you? What the Hell happened?"

"He probably got my handle from FF, same as how I got his."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I think he thinks I'm pranking him again."

"Are you?"

Sollux raised an eyebrow and smiled mischievously. "Not yet. But..." He sent a response to Eridan's verbal harassment and blocked him. "Always good to lay some groundwork."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not yet." He looked over his shoulder, enjoying the fresh tint his glasses lent to everything. Something he hadn't realized the day before, something he found amazing, was that reflective surfaces seemed to take on an incredibly three-dimensional appearance, more than they did without the glasses. He'd get used to it, but for now, the whole world looked better behind these glasses.

He started playing Tetris and Aradia picked up _A Clash of Kings_ to continue reading, but looked up after a few minutes to the sound of rapid footsteps. "Uh-oh, incoming," she breathed. "Danger, Will Robinson!"

Before Sollux had a chance to turn around and see what had Aradia so on-edge, a presence came over his shoulder and a familiar voice hissed, "I really expected better from you, Captor."

He recognized that voice. He recognized that scent. He recognized that annoying (and stupidly hot) habit of invading his personal space. It was definitely Eridan, come to harass him some more.

Sollux stood up and turned around, grateful suddenly for the three inches he had on Ampora. It allowed him to look down as he snapped, "Back the fuck up and get out of my face." When he tried really hard, he could overcome his lisp, and he did so now. Eridan was going to take him seriously, whether he knew it or not, and he didn't want him to be able to use a mispronounced word as fodder.

Automatically, Eridan took a step back, his eyes flicking back and forth from one lens to the other. Sollux could almost see the thoughts running through his head—_red and blue mix to purple, purple is his favorite color, God damn it, what the fuck was I thinking?—_just as well as he could see someone approaching out of the corner of his eye.

And then she said, "Eridan? Is that _you_?" and Eridan's face drained of color. His purple eyes went wide, terror evident in them, but he sucked in a deep breath and turned around.

* * *

_Shit!_ He'd completely forgotten about _her._ Bad enough that she'd appeared out of nowhere—worse that she'd done it when he was caught practically ogling his rival. He'd gotten new glasses over the weekend with red and blue lenses and if he didn't know better, he wouldn't have had any idea that Sollux's eyes were two different colors and _wow_, those glasses looked really good and had he always been that tall?

And then _she_ showed up and shattered everything with four little words and he had to scramble to get himself under control and he turned around and there she was, all long dark hair and a playful smirk with her arms crossed over her chest. Even with the patch over her left eye, a result of some childhood accident she'd never elaborated on, she'd always been gorgeous.

And apparently, she'd been busy, too, because her shirt was sleeveless black with a blue hoodie tied around her waist and her left arm from shoulder to elbow was a straight-up homage, a tattooed masterpiece of spiders, scorpions, and other arachnids.

"Hey, V-vris," he said, struggling to sounds cool and failing miserably.

Vriska's gaze flicked momentarily over his shoulder to Sollux before settling back on him. "Sorry, am I interrupting anything?" she asked, still smirking. Her lipstick was blue and it brought out the brown in her eye and her skin. "I mean, it seems like you and your boyfriend are in the middle of a fight."

"He's not my boyfriend," Eridan replied weakly.

"Oh, _right_," she said as if she'd just remembered that he was straight. She looked back at Sollux. "Vriska Serket. Nice to meet you. I like your glasses," she added.

"Vriska? I think I owe _you_ a punch in the face, too," Sollux said.

Vriska looked shocked and hurt, but Eridan had seen that face before. It was an act. "For what?"

"For KN—Kanaya."

"_Oh_, I see. Be sure to hit my good eye," she said silkily. She peered around Sollux. "Hey, Aradia! Where _is_ Kanaya, anyway? I miss her."

"Back off, spider-bitch," Aradia snapped, standing up. "You think I'd really tell you where she is?"

Vriska's eye widened. "I'm hurt. I've always considered her one of my friends!"

"You've got a really fucked-up way of treating your friends."

She shrugged and abruptly grabbed Eridan, turned him around, and slung her arm over his shoulder. "I won't deny it. Just ask this cutie!"

Eridan closed his eyes. His expression spoke of severe physical pain. Before he could stop himself, he said, "I can't believe I slept with you."

"Yeah, me neither!" she said cheerily. "I had such awful taste, didn't I? Well, that was three years ago—what can you do?" She gave an exaggerated sigh, completely ignoring Eridan's mortified expression, and let go of him. "Alright, well, I'm off to catch up with some old friends of mine. See you around, losers!" And with that, she sailed off, leaving the other three staring at the back of her Spiderman backpack.

There was a dead silence for a few moments until Eridan meekly slunk off to a table at the far end of the room.

"Wow. Is she always such a bitch?" Sollux asked, watching Eridan leave.

"As far as I've known her, yeah. She was awful to Kanaya, and I'm afraid she plans on ruining her life again. Looks like she's already started on Eridan."

"Yeah." Eridan set his elbows on the table and stared at the surface, completely oblivious to everything. Sollux felt a wave of pity for him. Sure, Eridan was an asshole, but Vriska seemed worse—not clueless to the kind of havoc she wrecked, but she _reveled_ in it, found it amusing, went out of her way to hurt other people. At least when Eridan fucked with him, he expected to get as good as he gave. "Is it completely fucked-up to feel bad for him?" He turned around to meet Aradia's gaze.

She shook her head. "Not where Vriska is concerned. From what I've heard, all she does is hurt people. If she really was in a relationship with him—which I assume she was—then I don't doubt it ended badly for him."

Sollux looked back at Eridan. He was still motionless at the table, but almost caving in on himself. Even his hair seemed to be drooping. "God damn it," Sollux muttered. "Watch my backpack."

* * *

**So... based on what you've seen of Vriska so far, does she seem okay?**


	24. Act 24

**Tacos make an excellent peace offering. That doesn't apply to anything in the story, but it's relevant to my life. (I'm back in San Diego, and after sleeping in my truck last night—which was weird—I am now back in my friend's apartment with tacos.)**

**Many thanks to crimsonkoteto, Fabylou55, BlOo KiSsEs, obsessed01616, CatastrophicAquarius, Snookster (yes, you did review on the wrong chapter, but thanks anyway!), LinkinPark X, cherrylipbalm, scone, fangirl4you, Kerra-Chan, Heki564, and Wolfen Artist of Hetalia for your reviews to the last act and especially for reassuring me that I don't actually suck at characterizing Vriska! Yay!**

* * *

Twice, Sollux stopped to wonder what the Hell he was doing. He felt bad for Eridan, he really did, but he wasn't quite convinced he was the right person to be providing emotional comfort for a situation like this. If anyone, it should really be Feferi here to console him—she was Eridan's best friend after all. But he looked around and realized Feferi was nowhere to be found, but Eridan had basically claimed him as his rival so Sollux felt strangely compelled to care about Eridan's emotional well-being. That didn't seem like a logical response for a sworn nemesis to have, but he figured that if anyone was going to make Ampora feel like shit, it should have been him.

He stood awkwardly by Eridan's table, trying to come up with something to say. The other boy didn't seem to notice him, though. He merely sat there, head in his hands, staring at the table.

"Um," Sollux said finally, "you okay?"

"Yeah," Eridan rasped, still not looking up.

It was obviously a lie, but what could he do? He wasn't equipped to handle this kind of thing. He briefly considered going back to his own table, but he knew he couldn't. He would hate himself if he just abandoned Eridan to wallow in self-pity.

"Look, you're clearly not. Talk to me."

"W-why the fuck do you care?"

_Because she's a bitch and shouldn't treat anyone the way she does._ "I don't know. But I do."

"It doesn't matter. She just enjoys fuckin' with people's lives."

Sollux chewed on his lip for a moment before sitting down, too. "She shouldn't get away with crap like that. Maybe you could talk to FF about it."

Eridan scoffed. "An' tell her what? 'Hey, Fef, funny story, but Vris is back an' she made me feel like a stupid grub in like thirty seconds by bringin' up that time I slept with her in high school. Oh, by the way, I slept with her in high school'? Yeah, _that'll_ go over _reel_ well."

_Looks like he's not immune to the fish puns, either._ "She... she didn't know? I thought you and her were best friends. Don't you tell each other everything?" Hell, Aradia was _his_ best friend and he told her all the weird, embarrassing shit he couldn't tell anyone else. He thought that Eridan and Feferi were at least that close, too.

"Why the Hell would I tell her about that? It was a huge mistake—see Exhibit A, five minutes ago—an' Fef hates Vris anyway. That sounds like a really good way to make her hate her more."

"Okay, I'm pretty sure FF is incapable of hating _anyone_," Sollux said. "But if you want to, like, be with her or something, presenting this idealized version of yourself that's never done something stupid is a really good way to disappoint her later." He felt more and more awkward by the second, especially after Eridan finally looked up at him with something in his eyes that Sollux couldn't quite read.

"Why the fuck _wouldn't_ I present a' _idealized version_ a' myself? The real me sucks," Eridan said softly, but Sollux could hear the self-loathing in his voice. It was trippy—it was like talking to a version of him that looked nothing like him.

"If she really likes you, the real you will be fine for her."

Something behind Eridan's eyes hardened. "So, what you're sayin' is, she doesn't want to be with me an' she hates me."

Sollux groaned and thunked his forehead against the table. Eridan was deliberately twisting his words—at least he wasn't drowning in despair anymore; he was better suited to a little malice—and half of Sollux wanted to just give up and leave him alone (that would be the logical response, right?), but he stayed in the seat. "No, that's _not_ what I'm saying. I'm _saying_ that there's nothing wrong with the real you. FF probably doesn't even know you like her."

"Everyone else seems to see it but her."

"People miss good things even if they're right in front of their faces. What would you lose by telling her?"

"Her. I'd rather be her friend than nothin' to her."

"Well, then, you've got more honor than a lot of other people."

For half a second, there was a twitch at the corner of Eridan's mouth that could almost have been a smile. "You think so?"

"Yeah. It's one of the few things in your favor."

This time, he actually did smile, even if it was only for a second. "Well, I guess I can handle that." He leaned back in his chair and a confused look crossed his face. "Aren't you supposed to hate me or somethin'?"

"Doesn't a rival have certain responsibilities? I'm the only one who's supposed to make you feel like shit," Sollux joked, standing up.

If Eridan answered, he didn't hear. He just walked back to Aradia's table and fished his Nintendo DS out of his backpack.

"Well?" she asked.

"Well, what?"

"How did it go?"

Sollux shrugged. "Okay, I think. Apparently FF doesn't know he slept with her."

"That's weird. I thought they were friends."

"He said something about wanting to present an idealized version of himself to her in the interest of gaining her romantic affections."

Aradia snorted with laughter. "Did he really say that?"

"Not in as many words, but I can read between the lines. He's got it bad for her." There was a tightness in his chest that he couldn't explain as he said it but he pretended he didn't notice it.

"Weird."

"Yeah."

* * *

The whole interaction confused the almighty fuck out of Eridan. He would have expected Sollux to either not care at all about how Vriska treated him or somehow try to make it worse. What he _didn't_ expect was Sollux trying to make him feel better. It was weird and he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

For a few minutes, he was able to forget that he hadn't known Sollux for more than a week. They were able to talk without insulting each other, and the other boy somehow seemed to understand where he was coming from. It wasn't awkward. It felt normal, and besides Feferi and his family, he didn't find that often.

_Why?_ It didn't make any sense. Sollux was his nemesis, and Eridan didn't believe the bullshit excuse Sollux had given him about "no one besides me is allowed to make you feel like crap." No, Sollux cared in his own twisted way. As little as it made sense, it was almost a relief to realize maybe Fef wasn't his only friend.

He contemplated skipping his World History class, but he had nearly an hour until it started and he didn't to make a plan like that with so much time between now and then. Instead, he pulled out his phone and texted Feferi again.

_vvris showwed up this mornin_

He set his phone down and drummed his fingers on the table. He absently twisted one of his rings around his finger. He looked around without really seeing anything. His eyes fell on the back of Sollux's head and he quickly looked away.

_U)( o)( t)(at doesn't sound good_

_no it wwasnt an before you hear it from someone else i slept wwith her in high school_

He didn't know what compelled him to tell her. Maybe deep down, he knew Sollux was right—if he was eventually going to tell her how he felt about her, he had to be completely honest with her. She had to find out at some point.

But the wait between telling her and her response was agonizing. He suddenly wondered if he'd made a huge mistake.

_W)(ale, t)(at came out of now)(ere_

_like i said you might hear it from someone else. like vvris herself or someone idk. so yeah idk i dont wwant you to think im deliberately wwithholdin information_

_W)(at am I supposed to say, Eridan?_

_idk i wwas just bein honest i guess. are you mad at me or somethin noww_

He felt like an idiot. After three years, it really didn't matter anymore, so what possessed him to bring it up? He wanted to bang his head on the table in hopes of lapsing into a coma. _Fuckin' Sol, _that's_ what happened._ He groaned. If he hadn't listened to Sol's stupid advice, he wouldn't be in this situation where Fef presumably hated him now.

_Of course not! Let me guess, s)(e said somet)(ing really rude about it w)(en you saw )(er, rig)(t?_

_basically yeah_

_You wouldn't be t)(e first. S)(e's )(urt a lot of people, remember?_

_yeah_

_Is s)(e still t)(ere?_

_no she left like fifteen minutes ago_

_Alrig)(t, no worries. Just avoid )(er, and you s)(ould be okay._

Attempting to avoid Vriska seemed to be useless advice, but if he stayed out of sight, it would end better for him. She was right about that. The problem was, he didn't know what classes she had. He crossed his fingers and hoped she wouldn't drop in unexpectedly.

* * *

– –_apocalypseArisen began pestering grimAuxiliatrix– –_

_AA: watch y0ur back. vriska has arrived and is 0n the warpath_

_GA: Is This Information You Have Gleaned From Hearsay Or From An Actual Witnessing Of Events?_

_AA: i saw her. me and s0llux b0th. she laid a verbal smackd0wn 0n eridan amp0ra_

_AA: he was nearly in tears. s0llux had t0 g0 0ver and d0 damage c0ntr0l_

_GA: Shoutpole_

_GA: I Was Ignorant To Vriska And Eridan's Acquaintance. They Are Acquainted, Correct?_

_AA: theyre acquainted_

_AA: intimately_

_GA: …_

_GA: Your Meaning Being?_

_AA: they b0th said they slept together. she added that it was three years ag0_

_GA: I Am Both Surprised And Unsurprised Upon Learning This Information._

_AA: she menti0ned wanting t0 see y0u. i didnt kn0w where y0u are but even if i did i w0uldnt have t0ld her_

_GA: Understood. I Will Attempt To Maintain A Low Profile._

_AA: g00d luck_

– –_apocalypseArisen ceased pestering grimAuxiliatrix– –_

* * *

Kanaya was biting her lip as she put away her phone. Rose was immediately curious. "What happened?"

She weighed her words before speaking. "Do you recall when I explained the situation regarding Vriska?"

"The huge spiderbitch? Of course I do."

"And do you recall when I told you that I surmised she would arrive in a fortnight, or possibly a month?"

"Yes."

"She arrived this morning."

Rose sat back in her chair at the table she and Kanaya were sharing in the library. She'd skipped her Psychology class this morning since it would only be a lecture on material she'd reviewed and comprehended last week. She could afford to skip one class. Besides, Snowman (as her professor was nicknamed, not because she was round and white—in fact, she was quite the opposite—but because of her chilly demeanor) was pretty cool, but she could be long-winded sometimes.

Of course, now that she'd heard Kanaya's news, she was glad she'd decided to skive off her class. She wasn't sure how Kanaya was taking the revelation.

"I see. What now?"

Kanaya ran the knuckle of her thumb over her lip. "I don't know. I guess I follow Aradia's recommendation and avoid an encounter with Vriska for as long as possible."

"And what about when the inevitable encounter happens?"

"I don't believe it's inevitable."

"Okay, you may be right. But for argument's sake, let's assume that you will run into her at some point. What then?"

Kanaya remained silent for a few more moments. "I punch her in the face."

Rose laughed. "I was hoping for a response less along the lines of 'expel me.'"

The shorter girl smiled. "I don't know. I haven't seen her in a month or so."

"She may not even try to get into your head this time."

"I struggle to accept that."

"Why?"

"According to Aradia, Vriska 'laid a verbal smackdown' on another former paramour of hers."

"Sounds juicy."

"I don't know many details."

"Well, if she shows up and you need me for moral support, let me know."

Kanaya smiled again. "Thank you, Rose. But I'll be fine. Any battle I have with her, I want to win in my own right. No one needs to fight for me."

"And that's a perfectly healthy response." Rose ran her fingers through her hair, grinning. "I think you'll be just fine." Her face fell. "John might not be, though. I suppose I'll have to make sure he's not a gibbering idiot during lunch. He may not even know she's here right now."

Kanaya nodded. "True. But perhaps you could call him in a few minutes. I have my Sociology class to go to."

"Want me to walk with you?"

She smiled and stood up. "I would like that very much."

* * *

**More spider8itch in either act 25 or 26.**


	25. Act 25

**I started listening to "Welcome to Night Vale." I have a new fandom now. SO MANY EXCITE. Like 6 excite.**

**Many thanks to fangirl4you, Wolfen Artist of Hetalia, obsessed01616, LinkinPark X, thepeopleofthecrysis, RandomAnonymous, BlOo KiSsEs, and CatastrophicAquarius for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

It was one of those quintessential southern California mornings, the kind that starts off gray and overcast and burns off into bright and sunny around nine-thirty or ten. Overhead, a few seagulls wheeled through the air, hunting through the parking lots and lawns for stray food. John watched them for a few minutes, wishing he could join them. Flying had always seemed really cool to him, and he wondered what it would be like to fly. He couldn't even imagine the sheer freedom to go wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted, being able to control your own flight, banking left or right, looping under bridges or around street signs, narrowly avoiding being splattered on the pavement, but he wished he could.

He reluctantly pulled himself away from his birdwatching and headed to class. Dave and Karkat would be there already. He was probably late already, but Deuce wouldn't care. He was too nice to publicly humiliate someone.

John sprinted full-tilt through the hallway until he got to his classroom door. He quickly shook his hair back (attempting to actually tame it would only lead to disappointment) and pretended that he hadn't dashed the whole way. He shifted his backpack higher and slunk through the door as quietly as possible.

"Hi, Mr. Egbert," Deuce called in his high, squeaky voice. John flinched and gave an embarrassed, half-hearted wave, and Deuce went right on with his lecture. John made it to the rest of his seat without incident, scooting past Dave (his headphones around his neck, his head tilted back, his eyes closed, and his mouth open; he was quite obviously fake-snoring) and settling between him and Karkat (his head tipped slightly to the right, his eyes unfocused, and his hand frozen over his notebook without a single word written on the page). Apparently he wasn't the only one having an off morning.

Both Dave and Karkat snapped back to reality as John sat down. Both of them looked surprised to see him. "What? What's with the looks?"

Karkat glanced at Dave over John's shoulder. John could only assume that Dave was looking back. They seemed unwilling to explain, hoping the other would jump in.

Karkat broke first. "You were late, so we thought... maybe you ran into someone on the way here."

"Someone? Like who?"

"Like... someone you may not want to fucking talk to."

"I don't—"

"Vriska," Dave cut in.

John blinked, his eyes widening. "Vriska? How could I run into her here?" It didn't make any sense—yeah, she'd called him last week and told her she was going to be coming here soon, but it couldn't be already. It was too soon—only a week!

Dave and Karkat exchanged another glance. John immediately didn't like it. "What?"

Karkat groaned softly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ah. Right. Well—" He stopped speaking, his eyes landing over John's shoulder, and John turned around just in time to see Dave stop shaking his head.

"Tell me. Is she here now? She can't be—she told me it would be a few weeks or something."

"Spider-bitch lied," Dave said. "There was a Vriska sighting this morning, and she's already reduced one guy to tears and is on her way to wreck another."

"You're probably on her list, too," Karkat added.

John looked from one of them to the other. "How—"

"Sollux told me. He and Aradia saw her. She started harassing my lab partner. Trust me, she's here."

"Just... be cool, okay? Don't... don't freak out or anything." Dave cast a cursory glance around the classroom. "Look, she's not here right now, so just relax. You gotta deal with her at some point, but... not right now, okay?"

John nodded slowly, his eyes dropping to his desk. Suddenly, it didn't matter that he'd been late for class. He felt caged, trapped, and all he wanted to do was abscond from the classroom, from the building, from the school, from his life. He felt the impending press of his doom closing in on him and he wished he could just fly away, at least for a little while.

Like until Vriska graduated, since expecting her too leave would require too much hope.

But apparently his panic showed on his face since the next thing he knew, Karkat grabbed him by one arm and Dave grabbed him by the other and they held him in his seat, pinning his arms to the desktop, so he sat there and tried to focus on something, anything that wasn't the prospect of seeing Vriska or the hands gripping his arms.

Dave slid the band of his headphones over his head and adjusted them so only the left one covered his ear. John heard quiet murmuring coming from the right one, pressed against Dave's neck, and instead he strained his ears to figure out what the voice was saying. He gave up after he heard what sounded vaguely like "semantic," "beautiful," and "jellyfish," and just closed his eyes. He sensed Karkat shifting slightly in his seat but didn't bother opening his eyes.

Class would be over soon, and then he could go home and hide.

* * *

"I thought I might find you here."

Equius blinked in confusion. Whoever was speaking was definitely talking to him—she'd lightly kicked his leg, either oblivious or deliberately ignorant of the waterfall of perspiration on his skin. He would have expected it to be either Nepeta or Aradia, but he knew the sounds of their voices and it wasn't either of them. Still, he couldn't help but think that she sounded familiar somehow, like a voice he hadn't heard in years.

He rolled out from under the truck he was working on and blinked again. "Vriska? Is that _you_?"

She laughed and leaned against the truck. "Who else would it be?" She looked around the campus hobby shop. "I have a feeling I'm the only female who's been here in a few decades, at least."

"No, Nepeta has spent time here," Equius said, getting to his feet and wiping his gloves off on a towel slung around his neck.

"Are you still hanging out with her? _Really_? I thought that was only some stupid first-grade thing."

"It was third grade," he murmured. "And she is my best friend."

She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "What_ever_. I've got way too many irons in the fire to preoccupy myself with bullshit that's eleven years old."

"Vriska—" he started sharply, but she cut him off.

"Irons. Fire. _All_ of the irons."

"I see. What do you want from me?"

She turned to face him, tilting her head to one side as if sizing him up. "Well, for starters, it turns out that a few people I've been... _involved_ with, shall we say, actually go to this school. A fact that I was unaware of when I decided to transfer here, but..." Vriska grinned at him in such a way that he _knew_ she'd known. "Well, what can you do?"

He remained silent, wiping his forehead with the back of his wrist.

"Right. You never were verbose, were you? Always the strong, silent type. Somehow, I'm not surprised you haven't changed. No one else has—Eridan is still a whiny little bitch, can't do anything without running off crying to Feferi, and Kanaya's grand solution to everything is hiding. I'm surprised I haven't seen Tavros around, either. He was so hard to miss for awhile. John's been MIA all morning—he's probably avoiding me, too."

"Can you blame them? I haven't heard the most charitable things about you from any of them."

"Oh, you know them all, huh?"

"Not Eridan," Equius confessed. "Except by reputation. He and Sollux have started a rivalry."

"Sollux? Who's that? Wait—is he that tall guy with the lisp and the weird glasses?"

Equius straightened up. "My brother and I made those for him."

"Wow, _rivals_? Huh, I guess Eridan _has_ changed. He used to be so obsessed with getting people to like him. I guess he wants people to hate him now, huh? But from what I saw, it's not going quite the way he planned."

"_What do you want from me?_" Equius repeated.

Vriska flipped her hair in annoyance and crossed her arms over her chest. "Information. There's this girl, a friend of Kanaya's. Her name is Aradia. She—"

"I know her."

"Oh, good—"

"She's my girlfriend," he added.

"Are you _serious_ right now? _Her_?"

"Not... not exactly. Not yet. But—"

"Oh, my God, Equius—"

"I will thank you not to use profanity around me."

"'_Oh, my God_' is not profanity. '_Shut your fucking mouth_' _is_ profanity, and I'll thank _you_ to learn the goddamn difference."

Equius closed his eyes and took a deep breath, doing his best to rein in his temper. He didn't lose it very often, but some people had an inherent ability to anger him. Vriska was one of those people.

"_Anyway_," she went on, "since you're so close to Miss Megido, find out from her where Kanaya spends her time and clue me in. Add me on Pesterchum, too—my handle is arachnidsGrip."

"No."

"No, what?" She narrowed her eye in a sharp glare.

"I will not spy on people for you."

For a second, it looked like she was about to hit him. She wouldn't have done much more damage than a particularly small and non-lethal spider trying to harm a stallion, but it would have annoyed him either way. She thought better of it at the last minute, though, and simply dropped her arms. "Fine," she snapped. "I'll figure it out _without_ your help. I have a Photography class to get to anyway." Shooting him one last withering glare, she turned and stalked out of the hobby shop.

Equius felt bad for the next person to run into her.

* * *

Eridan was able to suffer through World History and then Biology without incident. He deliberately ignored the way Karkat hinted he knew what happened this morning—apparently, everyone had noticed Vriska and, while she was charismatic and distinctly attractive, somehow knew she wasn't someone to be trifled with.

He managed to locate Fef after she finished swim practice and dragged her off campus for lunch—all the better to avoid Vris—while wishing, for some reason, that Sol was there as well to offer his own brand of emotional support, such as it was. After lunch, he made it to his next class without incident and dropped into his seat, feeling relief and some small measure of pride for having stayed away from Vris since she'd left this morning.

He didn't have much time to enjoy it, though. Moments after Kanaya sat down two seats in front of him and two seconds before their professor started checking attendance, the door flew open and Vriska sailed in.

The bile rose in his throat and he wondered if it was too late to leap out the window, but Vris had already caught sight of him and Kanaya both—_That's right, Sol and Ara both said they had a thing—_and grinned. He didn't like the predatory look or the way she kept glancing between the two of them.

"And you are...?" their instructor asked.

"Serket. Vriska Serket. I'm new," she added with a deliberately flirty toss of her hair.

Eridan let out an involuntary groan and smacked his forehead on his desk. In front of him, Kanaya started fumbling with her books. A few moments later, a folded-up sheet of paper slid under his arm.

Vriska was just sitting down two rows away from them but a roughly equal distance from both of them. Kanaya, on the other hand, had straightened up and was half-turned in her seat, shooting him a surreptitious glance.

_I Am Of The Belief That Now Is An Appropriate Time To Hasten Our Exit._

_are we runnin from the huge spiderbitch_

_We Are Not Retreating. This Is A Tactical Re-appropriation Of Emotional Defenses._

_im not one for cuttin classes but yeah thats probably a good idea_

_We Should Stagger Our Departures. Two Minutes Should Be A Sufficient Lapse._

_you goin first or me_

_You._

Eridan hadn't even unpacked his bag. He seldom did. So if he timed this just right...

But Vris could follow them, and out of the safety of a structured learning environment, away from the watchful eye of a professional educator, they might not be able to avoid an altercation.

_Fuck it._ As soon as his teacher turned around, Eridan slipped the strap of his bag over his shoulder, got up, skirted the edge of the classroom, and slipped out the door. He pressed his back to the wall a few feet from the door, counted to one hundred and twenty, and prayed the next person out the door wasn't Vriska.

It was Kanaya. "Let's go," she said, grabbing him by the sleeve and leading him through the hallway.

"Where're we goin'?"

"Away from here."

Considering "away from here" was a good deal better than "the same classroom as Vriska Serket," he allowed himself to be dragged out of the building.

* * *

**EVERYONE IS FLEEING FROM VRISKA except we haven't seen Tavros's reaction to her yet. I have this idea that Gamzee would go completely apeshit (see canon Gamzee when he runs out of sopor pies) if Vriska tried to intimidate sweet little Tavros.**

**Yes, I like this headcanon a lot.**

**Good night, Night Vale. Good night.**


	26. Act 26

**Sorry about the belated update! I had a rough few days and today was pretty bad, too, but hopefully I'll be able to update again tomorrow. My plans are starting to come together...**

**Many thanks to walomadolo, Livis, iDreamBig, kab, fangirl4you, obsessed01616, thepeopleofthecrysis, stahp-it, BlOo KiSsEs, LinkinParK X, CatastrophicAquarius, RandomAnonymous, scone, Kerra-Chan, and Heki564 for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

Eridan didn't know where Kanaya was leading him until he saw a small knot of people sitting in the grass underneath one of the few trees on campus that wasn't a palm tree. It was actually a massive pine tree that several students had tried (and failed) to scale before. Currently, a boy with dark hair and a blue shirt was hanging from one of the lowest branches by his knees, his shirt falling down around his face, and a blond kid with sunglasses was swatting at him.

Sollux was there, too. Eridan found himself unconsciously searching for him for reasons he couldn't quite fathom (except for the fact that he recognized Aradia and assumed he would be there too) and there he was, sitting up against the trunk with one knee pulled up to his chest and his arms looped around it.

"Um. Are we goin' over there?" he asked hesitantly.

"Of course. They're waiting for us."

"Um. I only recognize Sol an' Ara." And Karkat... and there was Gamzee and Tavros, even though he'd only seen the two of them that one weekend.

"They are present for moral support."

"An' what kind a' moral support is that?"

"We have a common enemy with others."

"Other people Vris have destroyed?"

She flashed him a wry smile. "Certainly you didn't think we were an isolated entity." She continued walking and Aradia stood up and practically sprinted to meet her, flinging her arms around Kanaya. Almost involuntarily, Eridan looked past them to Sollux. For a second, he was sure the other boy was looking at him, too, but he blinked and Sollux was looking down at his shoe. Eridan looked too. The left one was was white and the right one was black, but aside from that, they appeared to be identical. He wondered if Sollux had actually bought two separate but similar pairs of shoes just for the purpose of mismatching them, and then he wondered if his socks were mismatched, too. He couldn't see them from here but he wanted to know.

Aradia led them to the group. She sat back down next to Sollux and Kanaya gracefully slid to the ground next to her. There was a space open in between Karkat and a huge guy with sunglasses who also looked familiar somehow. He knew several of the people in the group, but he felt separate from them, detached. None of them were really his friends. They were all friends with other people—Kanaya had Aradia and Sollux, the blond kid with the sunglasses and his dark-haired friend and Karkat, Tavros had Gamzee, the big guy next to him and the tiny girl with the cat hat... Eridan wondered which one of them had been wronged by Vriska. His money was on the guy—the girl looked too happy.

Eridan drew his own knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them as Aradia stood up. She positioned herself in the middle of the awkward circle and pushed at the head of the dark-haired boy still hanging from the tree limb. He stuck out his tongue and scrambled up, righting himself and balancing carefully on the branch.

"You're gonna get a concussion," the blond kid said. The sunglasses made it impossible to tell where he was looking and he had a pair of headphones hanging around his neck.

The other boy shook his head. "I'll be okay!" His voice had an unnaturally bright quality to it, and if Eridan closed his eyes, he'd think he was being cheerful, but his expression didn't match his tone. For a second, it looked like he'd be okay with falling.

"As long as he pays attention, he can stay up there," Aradia said, looking pointedly up at him.

He waved in acknowledgment.

"So. I think we all know why we're here right now."

No one said a word.

"Right. Kanaya, what time does that Photography class end?"

"Four."

"That gives us nearly two hours to come up with a solution to this issue. Oh, sorry about asking you all to skip your classes, but I figured you'd welcome any excuse."

A faint chuckle went around the group. Sollux laughed, too, dropping his head and laughing at his knee. Eridan half-smiled.

"So. What are we going to do about Vriska?"

No one had an answer.

"Nothing? Surely one of you has an idea."

"W-well," Eridan stuttered, fighting to keep his voice level, "I think that hurtin' her like she hurt us is a good start."

"Okay, great. How do we do that?"

As to that, Eridan didn't have an idea. He didn't want to talk about this—it was a part of his life he wanted to forget. He didn't want to talk about how she'd hurt him. She'd been using him for his money and as an easy lay, and he'd been sucked into it, made to think it meant something to her. He'd never been in love with her—he'd had no delusions about his true feelings for her—but it still meant something to _him_. He imagined his (hypothetical) sexual partners would have some meaning to him, not just someone manipulating him. Maybe that was why he'd focused so sharply on Feferi after Vriska crushed him. Fef wouldn't hurt him—not intentionally, not like Vris had.

He couldn't even imagine what it would take to make Vriska feel like she couldn't trust people like that.

Instead, he pulled out his phone and texted Fef. _so vvris wwas in my photo class an kan an me left an noww wwere at this thing ara planned for people that vvris hurt an i guess wwere plannin some wway a gettin back at her or somethin_

"I find infidelity a difficult illusion to maintain," Kanaya said carefully. "It would take considerable planning as well as recruiting others to our cause to implement the plan. I don't see that working."

_Sounds arduous. W)(at's )(appening?_

_nothin yet. no one has any good ideas. please come okay i dont knoww half these people an they all got friends a their owwn_

Up in the tree, the boy with the dark hair nodded and sighed. "She sucks."

Karkat groaned and smacked his forehead. "Of course she does, John. Now would you get your windy blue ass down here?! You're making me nervous."

A ripple of laughter went up at the description of John's ass as windy and blue. Even Eridan laughed and pretended not to notice when Sollux looked at him even though he was secretly pleased.

_W)(o else is t)(ere besides Aradia and Kanaya?_

_sol an kar and gamz and tavv an some guy named john an a couple other people i dont knoww_

John let out a frustrated groan, tilted his head back to look at the upper branches, and then finally, reluctantly, dropped down. Aradia stepped out of the way just in time and John landed feet first, tucked his body, and rolled in between Karkat and the blond boy. Neither of them looked all that amused, but the tiny girl with the cat hat giggled and clapped her hands. John sat up properly, face red.

_Alrig)(t, let me swim off from class reel quick._

Eridan rolled his eyes but put away his phone, relieved that she would come. He felt strange here, considering the only person he was really friendly with was his _rival_. Who'd offered his own strange brand of comfort earlier today and had even made him laugh when he hadn't felt like it at all.

"Right, okay. Now that _that's_ been resolved..." Aradia rolled her eyes. "Do you guys even want to do this?"

"I think she's evil," Tavros said suddenly, his voice raising at the end as if he were asking a question or as though he hadn't finished his sentence. Still, he stopped talking, although his hand gripped Gamzee's arm tightly. The taller boy had his legs splayed with Tavros right in between, his arms wrapped protectively around him. Before this, Tavros had been running his fingers over Gamzee's arms, but a second or two before he spoke, he abruptly dug his nails into his arm.

Gamzee hadn't appeared to notice or be bothered by it, though. He simply moved his free arm to the back of Tavros's neck and rubbed.

The girl with the cat hat tore her eyes away from John long enough to say, "I agree, but... is it _fur_—I mean fair, sorry!—to, like, gang up on her like this? This kinda seems like bullying."

"She approached me early and asked me to spy," the big guy next to her said quietly, before Aradia could say anything.

"She... she what?" she asked.

The big guy nodded. "Specifically, she wanted me to ask _you_ about Miss Maryam's whereabouts."

_Miss Maryam...? Oh, Kan._

"Why you?"

Suddenly, the big guy looked highly uncomfortable. "I knew her in elementary school. She was the girl I told you about, the one who lost her eye in the crash."

_That's how...?_ He hadn't known that. Apparently, neither had Kanaya or Tavros, since their eyes widened in surprise.

"That was a long time ago," Aradia said. "Why now?"

"We... we used to be friendly."

"They used to be best friends," the girl with the cat hat explained.

"Nepeta," the big guy said warningly.

"Shoosh!" She swatted at him, although he didn't even flinch. "It was twelve years ago, though! And she left school right after the accident!"

"We lost contact after that," the big guy added.

Aradia pinched the bridge of her nose. "Crap, this is a mess. Alright, Equius, at least you told her no. That's what counts."

Eridan's glance strayed toward Sollux again. It was hard _not_ to look at him—he was right across from him. Sollux was rubbing the back of his neck, brows furrowed and full lips pursed. Eridan would have given half his fortune to know what he was thinking.

He didn't have long to wonder, though. "Look," Sollux said slowly, starting to look up, "I have an idea, and you can feel free to reject it if you want.

"From what I've seen, she thrives on attention. She loves making people feel awful. So the idea is to just... ignore her. It sounds simple, but it'll kill her. Now, it's probable that she'll move on to tormenting other people, but if that ends up happening, we could have more people on board with ignoring her. If the people she wants to hurt just pretend she doesn't exist, she could stop completely."

No one spoke for several long moments. Eridan had to admit, it sounded like a pretty good idea. Simple—that was true—but the simplicity made it beautiful. Vriska's love of manipulating people was a weakness as well as a strength. If they could cut their reactions, pretend she didn't exist, it would strip her of her power. It was a good idea.

"I like it," he said before he could stop himself. The group looked at him in surprise, not the least of which was the pleasantly stunned look on Sollux's face. He almost looked to be fighting a grin, and Eridan didn't like the way his heart rate picked up at that smile.

"It has merit," Kanaya seconded. "Simple and elegant seems the way to go."

Aradia nodded slowly. "John, Tavros? What about you two?"

Tavros nodded, too. "I think it's a good idea." His voice still rose at the end, but he smiled as Gamzee kissed the back of his head.

"John? You on board?" the blond kid asked, nudging him.

For a second or two, it didn't look like John had heard him. But then, after an interminable wait, he nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Let's do it."

"Good," Aradia said. "But we all need to do this—it can't just be them. _All_ of us have to ignore her. Tell your friends, too. Make sure they know not to acknowledge anything she says or does. And we should meet again sometime soon to check in on each other. Agreed?"

There was a murmur of assent and a chorus of nodding heads, and Aradia grinned.

"Good," she said again. "And with forty-five minutes until the end of Vriska's class."

Gamzee almost jumped a foot in the air. "Motherfucker! I'm late!" He grabbed his backpack, planted a quick kiss on Tavros's cheek, and said, "Motherfuckin' World History, motherfuckers!" Without further ado, he dashed off to the second-closest building, and Tavros actually laughed.

After that, everyone started getting up and picking up their belongings, wandering off in twos and threes. Feferi hadn't shown up—Eridan figured she hadn't been able to skip like she'd said—so he slung his bag over his shoulder, shot one last glance at Sollux—he was looking back and the moment their eyes locked, he immediately looked away—and headed off toward the campus coffee shop. He needed a caffeine pick-me-up.

* * *

**I kind of adore the Gamtav in this chapter. SORRY NOT SORRY. (Also Rose wasn't here, which I didn't realize until the end, but my excuse for that is the same as Feferi's: she could not afford to skip class.)**

**Good night, Night Vale. Good night.**


	27. Act 27

**Sorry! I meant to write this yesterday but then I slept and it didn't happen.**

**Many thanks to YaoiOverlord, grimjaws, iDreamBig, kab, CatastrophicAquarius, thepeopleofthecrysis, scone, obsessed01616, LinkinPark X, BlOo KiSsEs, RandomAnonymous, and Kerra-Chan for your reviews to the last act! (Also, thanks to Foxalicat for pointing out a continuity error I missed back in Act 12! I have since corrected it!)**

* * *

Sollux pretended that he hadn't just caught Eridan looking at him. He was just concerned for whatever reason about him—he hadn't seen him so visibly uncomfortable before this morning, before Vriska. She'd hurt him badly. Sollux could tell. It wasn't necessarily illogical to want to do what he could to cheer him up.

She'd hurt Kanaya and Tavros and John, too, he told himself, and he didn't find himself flying to comfort any of _them_. He did his best to ignore that thought, too.

"That was a really good idea," Aradia said as they headed back to the cafeteria. She slung one arm across his shoulders and the other around Kanaya's.

He shrugged. "Thanks." He couldn't resist looking back over his shoulder at the other departing figures. Nepeta and Equius were striding off towards a far parking lot, the nearly foot and a half height difference between them almost comical. She had to take three steps to match every one of his. Karkat was helping Tavros to his feet, and the two of them along with John and Dave headed to a building about a hundred yards away labeled with a four-foot-tall _C_. Eridan, though, had stopped walking and abruptly sat back down, and Sollux suddenly wondered where Feferi was. He hadn't seen her all day, and now that he was thinking about it, he would have expected her to be there. Where _was_ she? Eridan was just sitting there by himself, all alone...

A sick feeling twisted in Sollux's gut. "You guys go on ahead, okay?" He pulled away from Aradia's arm and started back toward Eridan.

"Want us to save you a seat?" she asked.

"Uh. Yeah, sure." He didn't know if he'd actually be back, but he figured it was better to be on the safe side. For all he knew, Eridan could snap at him and tell him to leave. _I really don't know all that much about him._

Still, for the second time that day, he found himself approaching Eridan with no idea how it would turn out.

"Hey. Uh, you okay?"

Eridan looked up, his purple eyes looking even bigger than normal, and slowly, he shook his head. "This whole situation is fucked-up," he said.

_Well, it's an improvement._ Sollux sat down across from Eridan. Again, he wondered what the Hell possessed him to talk to a guy who hated him. Although it seemed like maybe Eridan was hating him a less and less. He hadn't said anything really mean to him, not since last week, and yeah, that prank he pulled had been a dick move, but it wasn't like Sollux had been completely defenseless. He'd also gotten his retaliation even though he harbored no actual hatred for him. It felt more like a friendly rivalry than anything else.

So were they friends?

Vriska had seemed to think they were _dating_. That might have just been a joke, but still... They weren't exactly enemies, so did that make them friends?

"Well, _yeah_," he said, "but she's a fucked-up person."

"Yeah, I guess."

There was a few moments of silence, wherein Sollux glanced occasionally at Eridan and tried to figure out what was going on. Friendship—if that's what this was—was a complicated emotion.

The silence was broken, however, when Feferi appeared out of nowhere, charging across the grass and practically flinging herself to the ground where they were sitting. "So _glubbing_ sorry! What did I miss?" She looked apologetically from Eridan to Sollux, but when she saw him, her expression shifted to one of amused curiosity. "Hmm. What _did_ I miss?"

"Right—see you later," Sollux said quickly. He stood up, grabbed his backpack, and chased after Aradia and Kanaya.

"What was that all about?" Feferi asked, watching Sollux's retreat.

"I don't know. He... Everyone left already, but he came up with a pretty good idea for gettin' back at Vris."

"Hmm. I _sea_. What's the plan?"

"Ignore her. Sol said she likes attention an' if she doesn't have a' audience, she'll stop. Theoretically."

"_Whale_, he's right about her wanting an audience. She probably won't like being ignored much. But that doesn't answer my question. What was he doing here, with _you_?" She grinned.

"I don't know," he repeated. He really didn't, either—Sol just seemed to know when he was feeling down and alone and came by to talk to him. He was being nice to him, but Eridan couldn't figure out why. "But he... um, when Vris left this mornin', he came over an' talked to me."

"What did he say?"

"I don't remember," he lied. He remembered every word.

"_Whale_, was he rude?"

Eridan shook his head. "No. I mean... no. He's been nice." He'd been nice to Eridan all day, aside from first thing this morning, but he could admit that was his own fault. If he hadn't started harassing Sol, he probably wouldn't have been snarky with him at all.

Then again, if he hadn't started harassing Sol, he would have been by himself when Vris saw him and Sol might not have even noticed and he would have been by himself the whole time and she might have stuck around even longer because he wouldn't have had the shield of Sol and Ara, neither of whom were taking any of her shit. He might be even worse off than he was now.

"_Nice_? Nice how?"

"He... fuck, Fef, he just came over an' made me feel better. I don't know."

"_Whale_, that's good. I'm sorry I couldn't be here earlier."

"It's okay."

She sighed, leaning toward him and giving him an awkward sideways hug. "I don't feel like going back to class anymore. Wanna get out of here?"

"Yeah. I just need to get some coffee first."

"Okay." She climbed to her feet, helped him up, and they picked up their backpacks and started off toward the campus coffee shop.

* * *

"So, how was Mr. Ampora?"Aradia teased as Sollux sat down at their table.

"Fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah. FF showed up, so I left."

Kanaya nodded solemnly. "I understand how awkward that must have been. It must be difficult to be the boyfriend when the girlfriend is around."

Sollux nearly slammed his forehead against the table. "I'm not his boyfriend, and she's not his girlfriend."

"Right. You may not be his boyfriend, but you'd _like_ to be his boyfriend," Aradia said.

"No, I don't!"

"Oh, come on. That's _twice_ in one day you've gone rushing to his side, waiting to assist in the destruction of his evil ex. It's like Scott Pilgrim in reverse. Admit it—you like him."

Aradia was right—he _had_ talked to Eridan out of nowhere twice today. The fact that Eridan had been alone at his lowest had been too much for him to stand. He had to do something about it. Irrationally, he did like Eridan. Somehow, the asshole pulled himself out of his own self-loathing shell like no one else could.

She must have realized what the look on his face meant, because when she spoke next, her tone was less teasing and more full of realization. "Oh, my God. You actually _do_ like him. You've got a big gay crush on him!"

"Shut up, please," he muttered, putting his head down on the table and covering his head with his arms. He was pretty sure his face was burning red.

"Oh, my God. I am legitimately in shock right now."

"Yeah, you and me both."

Eridan Ampora was an _asshole_. Sollux liking him didn't make any sense. He was rude and obnoxious and... Well, he was devoted, if his long-time crush on Feferi was any indication. And he had the ability to laugh at himself in most cases. And he hadn't been angry when Sollux played that prank on him—he'd wanted him to do _better_. And he was hot, too. Like _really_ hot. He bit his lip. He hated to admit, even to himself, how genuinely attracted to Eridan he was. Even with the tendency to be an asshole—which seemed to be diminishing the more he got to know him—Sollux did really like him. _Fuck._ It figured that the first time in nearly two years he'd liked anyone, it would be some guy who didn't even _like_ guys.

"Wow." Aradia let out a giggle and ruffled his hair. "That bad, huh?"

"Can we please never speak of this again?" Sollux asked, tilting his head so she could distinguish his words. "I'm trying to forget all about this."

"Well, at least you're not crushing on Vriska Serket," she pointed out.

"No, I'm just crushing on her sloppy seconds." Then he flinched and looked up at Kanaya. "I am so sorry."

A muscle in her jaw twitched, but she nodded. "You spoke without thinking. I understand."

He grimaced. "I am really sorry. I didn't mean it like that." He felt like an asshole now. He really hadn't meant it the way it came out, but the damage had been done.

"I know."

There was an awkward silence until Aradia asked, "So, are you still going to play another prank on him?"

Sollux groaned. "Can we talk about anything except ED? At this point, I really don't care what the fuck it is."

Aradia giggled. "If you insist. Like what?"

He lifted his head. "How about EQ? What about that big reveal that he used to be VS's friend?"

Her face fell. "He was eight. He couldn't have known what an evil bitch she'd turn out to be. I'm not happy about it, but he didn't know her that well. And he never hurt anyone."

"You still like him?"

"Of course I do."

"I'm going to find Rose," Kanaya said abruptly, standing up. Without waiting for an answer, she glided out of the cafeteria, and Sollux groaned.

"Did I completely fuck that up?"

"Not completely, but you _did_ piss her off."

"I didn't mean to."

"I know you didn't, and _she_ knows you didn't, but she's still upset."

He started to stand. "Maybe I should—"

"No." She grabbed his arm and tugged him back to his seat. "Just leave her. Let her be angry for a little while. She'll forgive you, but she's had a very rough couple of weeks and I don't think she's been properly angry in a long time. It might be good for her. Just stay put."

* * *

Eridan made it through the rest of the day without running into Vriska again, something he was extremely grateful. His paranoia over possibly seeing her again had him on-edge and looking over his shoulder constantly, even after Fef looked around and told him Vriska was nowhere in sight. Even then, he couldn't relax until he was safely ensconced in his car and heading back to Cronus's apartment.

When he got home, Cronus was gone. Still at work, presumably. It was another of the pitifully few things Eridan genuinely liked about his brother—Cronus had scheduled work hours and he adhered to them. He actually even liked his job, which was weird since he just worked at a gas station. He'd taken the first job to hire him, and since he still got money from their parents every month (not to mention the inheritance he had coming to him), he was quite happy to bide his time. He'd talked about going back to college, but Eridan could tell it was just meaningless chatter, intended to make their parents happy.

Honestly, if Eridan had less motivation than he did, he would probably be in the same boat as Cronus.

He set his bag down on the floor of his bedroom and stared at the empty space where his hypothetical fish tank would go. He still felt tense and wished he'd already gotten his fish tank—it would relax him.

_Fuck it._ He stood back up, patted down his pockets for his keys, wallet, and phone, and left again. It was time to get a damn fish tank.

* * *

**In which Sol has a big fat gay crush on Eridan.**

**SORRY NOT SORRY.**


	28. Act 28

**A few things I forgot to mention in previous chapters: this does start off blackrom but flips to redrom. So if redroms aren't your thing, well, sorry, but this has a redrom ending. Another thing: remember the story Equius told Aradia about how he and Nepeta became friends? A girl lost her eye (Vriska) and another classmate, a boy, had to use a wheelchair for awhile (Tavros). Tav can walk now. No wheelchair anymore!**

**Many thanks to fangirl4you, iDreamBig, RandomAnonymous, scone, CatastrophicAquarius, YaoiOverlord, obsessed01616, Kerra-Chan, thepeopleofthecrysis, kab, BlOo KiSsEs, and LinkinPark X for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

Four hours later, Eridan was dumping water into his new aquarium, two washed-out gallon containers of milk at a time. Cronus walked back into the apartment halfway through and watched him with amusement, crossing his arms over his chest and kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. "Whatcha doin' there, daddy-o?" he asked.

"Shut up," Eridan grunted, hefting two more gallons of water into his room.

When he came back out, Cronus was still sitting on the sofa with a grin on his face.

Four more trips passed before Eridan finished filling up the tank. He poured two milliliters of dechlorinator solution into the water and set the bottle down on the desk. Then he attached the oxygenator to the side of the tank, poured in enough purple gravel to line the bottom of the tank with about two inches of rock, and stuck the lighted hood on top of the tank. He stared at it all for a moment, the water gurgling and running through the eighteen thousand filters, and flipped on the light. The whole mess—the quiet hum of the oxygenator, the gentle bubbling, the purple rocks—already had him calming down. Even without the fish swimming around (he'd found out at the PetCo that he'd have to wait at least a week before adding any fish to allow the water to become habitable, which disappointed him, but the clerk named Rufioh had set aside three bright yellow fish for him to pick up next Wednesday), it was already worth it. He was already thinking of all the other little accessories he could put in there—seaweed, a castle, maybe a few plastic treasure chests. He wanted his fish to be happy.

He set the remainder of the gravel in his closet and sat down on the edge of his bed. He wondered if a seahorse or two would be happy in there. Maybe that would make the tank too crowded. He'd have to talk to Rufioh again next week.

There was a knock on the door, but before Eridan could yell at Cronus to stay out, the door opened and his brother stuck his head in. "Oh, tuff, daddy-o! You got an aquarium!"

"No shit, Sherlock," Eridan grumbled. _Note to self: burn his copy of _The Outsiders_._ "Don't fuck with it."

"Cool it, I'm not gonna mess with anythin'." Without even looking at him, Cronus crossed the room and peered into the aquarium. "No fish?"

"Not yet," Eridan said. In spite of the disdain he held for his brother, he did want to talk about this. "The guy at the PetCo said I can't add any yet. That's tap water in there. The fish'll die since the water ain't habitable yet."

Cronus nodded, and Eridan got the impression he was only half-listening until he said, "What kind a' fish you gettin'?"

"Uh. Yellow ones?"

His brother laughed and straightened up. "Terribly specific. I hear the yellow ones are boss."

"Yeah."

Cronus lurked there for a few more moments, staring into the fish tank. The reflections from the water played across his face, turning the blue-purple shade of his eyes into a pure blue. Then, just as abruptly as he'd entered Eridan's bedroom, he straightened up, stuck the cigarette that had been tucked behind his ear into his mouth, and mumbled around it, "You hungry, daddy-o?"

"A little," Eridan admitted. "You shouldn't smoke," he added. He'd told his parents over the weekend that he was trying to get Cronus to quit, but that had been a lie. This was the first he'd ever mentioned to his brother that his smoking bothered him.

The elder Ampora looked briefly surprised. "I know," he said after a moment. He shrugged. "You probably shouldn't drink so much joe."

Eridan rolled his eyes. There was a difference between coffee and cigarettes in terms of health damage.

"My Sophie's been tryin' a' make me quit, too," Cronus murmured.

"Your _what_?"

Cronus rolled his eyes. "My girlfriend. Get with it, square."

Eridan groaned and rubbed his temples. "Newsflash, bro: it's 2013, not 1956. _You_ 'get with it'. I didn't even know you _had_ a girlfriend."

"Surprise, surprise. Dolls don't completely hate me." The cigarette was still poised, unlit, in Cronus's mouth. "I was gonna order a pizza. You like pepperoni, right?"

He couldn't believe it. For a second, he wanted to believe that he and Cronus were about to have a brother bonding moment, and he'd somehow completely ignored the fact that Eridan was at least a vegetarian. "Uh, bro? I don't fuckin' eat meat."

"You're a vegetarian?" Cronus seemed genuinely confused. "Since when?"

"Since like the tenth fuckin' grade, moron! Come on—it's been four, five years by now!" He scoffed and hopped off his bed. "Forget it. I'm goin' out to eat," he snapped. He snatched up his keys and headed to the door but froze with his hand on the doorknob when Cronus said softly, "Wait."

Eridan turned around and crossed his arms over his chest. "What?" He couldn't believe he'd once looked up to this guy. Cronus was three years older than him. Until the age of fourteen, he'd been Eridan's idol. Then Cronus started slipping deeper into his obsession with the greaser heydays and speaking practically a brand-new language. Even their parents were confused, but they were used to it—they'd been teenagers in the late fifties and early sixties. But for Eridan, it had been like he'd lost his best friend, and even before Cronus had moved out, they lost contact. But this one little fact, something Cronus probably should have realized since Eridan had been living at his apartment for a year and a half now, had completely escaped his brother's notice. How could someone live with another person for that long and not realize?

"Look, I'm sorry. I guess that _was_ stupid of me," Cronus admitted. "So, okay. No pizza. We can get somethin' else. What're you hungry for?"

"Um." Eridan wasn't quite sure what to say. "Uh, there's an Italian place, Big Rico's—they got some pretty good eggplant Parmesan," he suggested. He set his keys down.

Cronus smiled. "Sounds good. They deliver?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'll order somethin'. Stick around." Even though he was only an inch taller than Eridan, he ruffled his younger brother's hair (as well as he could, considering Eridan's hair was, as usual, coated in product to defy gravity) as he pulled out his phone and left his brother's bedroom.

Eridan watched until the door closed and he sat back down on his bed again. _Weird._ He went back to staring at the fish tank.

* * *

Sollux reluctantly gathered up the few articles of clothing that littered his bedroom floor, tossed them in his laundry basket, and eyed the plastic container disdainfully. He absolutely _hated_ braving the apartment complex's laundry facility. No matter what time of day (or night) he went down there, there was always someone there. He just wanted to be left in peace as he did his laundry, but inevitably, whoever was down there would try to make conversation. Sollux considered writing "FUCK OFF" on his forehead in marker but deemed that too subtle for some of the people in this building. Most of them were college students as well, and under normal circumstances, they might leave him alone, but for some reason, doing laundry brought out the chattiness in people. Dave Strider would probably keep his mouth shut if he saw Sollux, but Sollux had never had the fortune to do laundry with Strider.

His utter distaste for doing laundry here caused him to only do laundry once every two or three weeks. He had enough clothes to last that long, but it didn't help much because every excursion to the laundry room was enough to make him want to climb into his basket of clean clothes and hide and never come out. He suppressed the instinct, though, hefted his laundry basket onto his hip, and headed downstairs.

He peered around the laundry room. Aside from a couple in the corner, the room was deserted, and Sollux very nearly breathed a sigh of relief. He knew better than to actually express his relief, though—that was a sure way to jinx himself and cause the building's chattiest resident to appear with four loads of laundry and nothing to do but talk to him. It wasn't that he necessarily didn't like talking to people, because he did. It was just strangers that bothered him, and people he saw randomly at school halfway across campus still counted as strangers.

He chose a washing machine as far away from the couple as possible and started tossing clothing into the drum. He paid two dollars and fifty cents for a packet of soap, emptied that into his washer, and started it up. For a few moments, he watched the colors swirl together before growing bored and taking his Nintendo DS out of his back pocket. This was usually a better indicator of "I don't want to talk to you" than texting (or pretending to text) someone. _Everyone_ had their phones, and somehow the implication had become "I can multitask by talking to you and texting at the same time, so talk to me!" Generally, actual video games were better at getting people to leave him alone.

One half of the couple in the corner let out a giggle, and Sollux cringed and tried to make himself smaller. He slid off the bench he'd been sitting on and sank to the floor in the corner, wedged between the wall and his washer. There was pretty much no way anyone would get through to steal his clothes without attracting his attention (he'd learned the hard way his first week not to leave laundry unattended. It was a lesson he only needed to learn once—his Gemini shirt had been among the items that had been swiped, and he hadn't found another one like it).

He was halfway through a replay of a previously-beaten world in _Super Mario 4_ when the buzzer on the washing machine went off. Sollux stashed his Nintendo and switched his sopping wet clothing over to the nearest dryer, holding it awkwardly away from his body so his shirt didn't get wet as well. After paying another dollar and fifty cents for a small package of dryer sheets (he only ever used one but somehow the package managed to vanish in the two or three weeks between loads, and he had to buy another pack), he started up the dryer and huddled next to it, staying out of the sight line of the couple. The one was still giggling, but they were making out now, too, and Sollux desperately wished he wasn't there. There was no way they didn't know he was in the room with them, but they clearly didn't care.

He was forcibly reminded of Eridan as the couple came up for air and both of them laughed. He wasn't sure _why_ Eridan suddenly came to mind—he wasn't even sure he'd ever heard the guy actually laugh. But the idea that somewhere, Eridan could be doing his own laundry and avoiding exactly the same kind of social interaction as him made him want to crawl into a dryer and spin until he had a concussion and didn't have to think anymore. He knew his face was burning and, not for the first time, he silently cursed himself for having the worst judgment in the world—both for crushing on a guy who didn't even like other guys, and for crushing on that particular ass-wagon.

The next half an hour dragged by agonizingly slow, but the couple left about ten minutes before Sollux's laundry finished tumbling and five minutes after one of the few elderly women in the building shuffled into the laundry room. He kept himself as hidden as possible, hoping to avoid detection until his clothing was dry. Once the dryer buzzed, he yanked open the door, scooped out his clothing, and nearly sprinted to the elevator in record time.

Now, though, he wasn't sure which was worse: the prospect of being corralled into a conversation with a total stranger, or the knowledge that tomorrow, he'd somehow have to face Eridan Ampora and pretend that nothing had changed.

* * *

**FILLER FILLER FILLER FILLER but also importance in the filler.**

**Next chapter to have some plot thrown in for good measure (sorry I gave you basically two filler chapters in a row I AM SO EXHAUSTED FROM WORK).**


	29. Act 29

**Things that happened yesterday: crazy stuff that hindered my ability to write and correcting typos in the previous act. Things that happened the day before: saw _The Conjuring_, resulting in three screams at the movies and a later bedtime of about two hours (A+ movie, would recommend). Things that happened today: this act, and I got a date (with someone who told me afterward that she's been scheming for me to ask her out for MONTHS now, yay). Date is on Sunday OMG SO EXCITE.**

**Anyway, many thanks to CatastrophicAquarius, LinkinPark X, BlOo KiSsEs, Wolfen Artist of Hetalia, obsessed01616, RandomAnonymous, iDreamBig, thepeopleofthecrysis, and one guest for your reviews to the last act!**

* * *

The next two days went by better than Eridan expected. True, Sol seemed to be avoiding so much as looking at him, let alone talking to him or being anywhere near him, but he tried not to let that bother him too much. Besides, just as suddenly as Vris appeared in his life, she seemed as content to fade out of it. He thankfully only had that lone Photography class with her, but since he skipped that on Wednesday in favor of hanging out with the group he'd somehow assimilated into, he counted that as a win.

However much she left him alone, though, she had turned the full wrath of her presence on John and Kanaya. He figured this had something to do with the fact that Gamzee Makara genuinely scared the shit out of her (Hell, the guy freaked _him_ out sometimes, but he didn't doubt that Tavros would make it through the ordeal while only suffering a minimum of Vriska's presence) which explained why she seemed content not to bother Tavros, but he couldn't fathom why he'd been left out of the warpath. The only logical assumption he could come up with was that she found him boring. This wouldn't have surprised him, though—it was one of the reasons she'd been able to leave him so easily in the first place.

On Tuesday night, he ended up sketching the aquarium after turning off all the lights in his room save the light on the aquarium itself. He also took a few pictures of the way the light through the water reflected off his bedroom walls. He didn't think they'd be any good, but he needed the practice (in both photography and sketching) and he liked it anyway, so that was what counted. The water was a good muse for him, and it still calmed him down.

The meeting on Wednesday went much the same as the one they'd had on Monday. They gathered beneath the same tree and arranged themselves—whether consciously or unconsciously—in the same circle and in the same order, Eridan sitting between Karkat and Equius (as he'd learned was the name of the huge guy who had once been Vriska's friend). He was only slightly more comfortable with the group today than he was on Monday, but he chalked that up to nerves and the fact that Sollux's eyes stayed almost exclusively on the ground. Once or twice he glanced up toward Aradia, but he never looked at Eridan once.

Kanaya helpfully informed the group that ignoring Vriska had taken some of the proverbial wind out of her sails, and John concurred. He told them how Vriska had begun teasing him on the sidewalk in front of the Science building, and he and Dave had kept right on talking as if she wasn't there. He confessed it was one of the hardest things he'd done—Dave hid a snicker behind his hand at the double entendre, which John missed—but he managed it and, within two or three minutes, she let out a frustrated groan and walked away. It was certainly good news on that front, but Eridan couldn't help but wonder how long it would work. Vris was smart—she'd come up with some other way of getting under their skin soon enough.

After the group split up, Eridan hung back to talk to Aradia. She'd mentioned again gathering the group for a meet-up this weekend if everyone was able to come together and plan something, and it had given Eridan an idea. He needed to get his parents on board, but they were usually pretty easy-going...

"I had a' idea for somethin' we could do. Like, as a group," he said.

Aradia raised her eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"Well," he started carefully, suspecting but not quite sure that maybe Sollux was finally looking at him (he couldn't check without being obvious about it, since the other boy was behind him), "I can talk to my parents an' they'll probably be cool with it, but I w-was thinkin' a' havin' like a party or somethin' at my house. Not, like, a' _actual_ party, but somethin' w-where w-we could all hang out an' or maybe Saturday night. Like the only problem I could see is gettin' a few more people to driv-ve since my house is up near LA, but Fef would probably be okay with driv-vin' an' I can take a few-w people, so w-we got like eight people taken care a' for that." He was well-aware that he was starting to babble and when he babbled, he started to trip over his _V_s and _W_s, but he hoped that by talking faster, she (and Sollux) wouldn't notice it.

She appeared thoughtful for a moment or two, and he was sure she was going to say no, but then she started nodding slowly. "That sounds like a good idea, actually. What do you think, Sollux?" she added, grinning at the other boy over Eridan's shoulder. He turned.

"Yeah," Sollux muttered. His eyes stayed fixed on the ground and he twisted and untwisted his fingers through one of the straps on his backpack. "Great."

Trying not to feel disappointed by Sollux's lack of enthusiasm, Eridan looked back at Aradia. "'Kay. All I need to do is clear it with my parents but they should be okay with it," he said. "Uh, an' when I find out, I'll let you know."

"Alright, sounds good! I'm sure everyone else will be thrilled with the idea of getting out of here for awhile."

Eridan took that as an excuse to leave, so he quickly said goodbye to both Aradia and Sollux and headed off in search of caffeine.

* * *

"'Yeah, great,'" Aradia taunted lightly, putting her arm around Sollux's shoulders and steering him back toward the cafeteria. "It's a wonder he didn't swoon when you said that."

"I'm not trying to get him to _swoon_," Sollux grumbled. "I just... fuck, I don't know."

"Oh, come on, you know I'm just teasing. You're shy, I get it. It's hard work admitting you like someone."

"Especially _that_ raging asshat," he added.

"He's a raging asshat that you like anyway."

"And the less anyone says about that, the better."

"Alright, well, let me ask you this: not being polite, but being honest, how do you _really_ feel about going to this party at Eridan's place? I'm sure he'd understand if you didn't show up."

Sollux sighed. "Watching him moon over FF all night isn't my idea of a fun time."

"He probably won't, though. He'll probably moon over her half the time," she joked.

"I don't want to be in a fucking car with him. Or FF, either. So who else would we get to drive?"

"Well, there should be twelve of us with Feferi. So they can take ten people including themselves, and we can ask either Gamzee or Equius to drive. And if Equius drives, we can cut down on the congestion in the other two cars. I think that would be okay, huh? You, me, and Nepeta can ride with Equius and everyone else can figure out who to go with on their own."

"I haven't even decided if I want to go."

"Well, decide fast. Friday is two days away."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious."

"You're welcome, Major Sarcasm."

* * *

"You said _what_?" Fef demanded.

Eridan huddled against the cushioned booth, staring at the table and taking an anxious sip of his coffee. "I said that there would be a party an'—"

"Okay, I know what you said," she corrected, flipping her hair back, "but _why_?"

"It felt like the right thin' to do. Besides, it's been awhile since... I don't know..."

"You hung out with someone besides me?" she guessed.

"Kinda."

"Good. You need more friends."

"Yeah, but now I gotta talk to my parents an' see if they'll be cool with us takin' over the house for the weekend."

"_Whale_, it's not like either of us threw any wild parties in high school. They should trust us."

"So you think."

"Just ask them. And if they say no, I'm sure my mom will be fine with a bunch of twenty-year-olds filling up her house for the night."

"Yeah, let's hope." He'd told Aradia that his parents would probably not mind him having a party, but now that he was away from her, he became less sure. Even so, he knew that there was no way around it besides actually asking, so he reluctantly pulled out his phone and tapped his mom's number.

He took another drink as she answered, so he swallowed it quickly (burning his throat on the way down) and said, "Hey, Mom. How're you?"

"Just fine, dear. I can't say I expected your call today," she added with a laugh. In the background, he heard a sliding door open and then, faintly, the sound of waves on a beach. The door closed and after a moment, the sound gradually grew louder.

"Uh, where are you?" It didn't sound like home.

"The Bahamas."

_Of course._ "Why?"

She snorted with laughter. "Have you checked your calendar?"

"October twenty-third?"

"Yes. And what happens on October thirtieth?"

He tried to remember. Vriska's birthday was Halloween, but his mom's birthday was in July and his dad's was in May, so it wasn't either of those... "I got nothin'."

She laughed again. "Well, at least your dad didn't forget. Our wedding anniversary."

Eridan smacked his forehead. "Right, yeah. Sorry, I forgot. What, thirty-one years now, right?"

"Thirty-four."

"Crap. I'll remember it next year. Well, congratulations, then. Please tell me you're not on a nude beach."

"Technically, it's a private beach."

"I don't like the use a' the word 'technically.'"

"And I don't care," she said lightly. "Well, if your call is not because of the occasion, why _did_ you call?"

"Can't I just call to check up on you?"

"Sure you can. You never do, though."

Damn, she had him pinned. "Alright, well, I was wonderin' if I could have some friends over at the house this weekend. I thought you were still home," he added unnecessarily.

"Clearly. Let me go ask Dad." She set the phone down somewhere and Eridan groaned.

"What?" Fef asked.

"She put me on hold."

"Ah. Where are they?"

"The Bahamas. Their anniversary's next week."

"Oooh, when are they gonna be back?"

"I don't know. I'll ask when she gets back to the damn phone."

"Eridan Rachel Ampora, you know your mother doesn't like to hear swearing," Feferi said with mock sternness, but the effect was ruined by the obviously phony middle name.

"Alright, Eridan?" his mom said, returning to the phone a few minutes later.

"Yes, Mother?"

"Your father and I agreed that you can have your friends over at the house on a few conditions."

"Name 'em."

"If anyone makes a mess, it will be cleaned up before we get home. That'll be November third, by the way. Next, you can have alcohol, as long as _absolutely no one_ drives after drinking. Finally, lock up our bedroom and the study. Everywhere else is fine."

"Deal."

"Have fun, then, and try not to get too crazy, alright?"

"No promises."

"Promise anyway."

"'Kay. No messes, no drinkin' an' drivin', an' they'll all stay outta your rooms."

"Thank you."

"Yeah. Have fun on your trip." Eridan hung up and looked at Feferi. "She said yes."

"So the next step is alcohol?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "Do we know anyone over twenty-one?"

"Meenah, but that won't work for obvious reasons, unless we want to go over to my house before the party."

"Yeah, no. Let's not do that."

"So what else can we do?"

Eridan sighed again. "The only thing we can do. Looks like I gotta ask Cro."

* * *

**My friend Kai got a kitten today. We both wanted to name him Cecil, but Kai's other friend John (who is a raging asshat, and not in a good way) said it was an old man's name and rejected it. (I personally think that since John isn't providing anything for this cat, he has no opinion, but whatever.) New name is Adam.**


End file.
